The Recruits
by Bunnies ate my baby
Summary: Night world children are being stolen and trained as assassins for a human ran company called ASG. Jessica is the only human ever to be recruited. Fully grown she knows that anyone from her former life would no longer recognise her, but is she that lucky?
1. Chapter 1

I wrote this quite a while back and thought I might as well submit this here. Hope you enjoy, thanks

* * *

**THE RECRUITS**

"Ok, you'll all soon know why you are here," the tall, dark tanned man surveyed his audience, all children from the age of six to thirteen. All night worlders; except one, a seven year-old human girl, someone they considered too highly valued to be dismissed.

"Well you all should know already how you have ended up here," sobbing could be heard from the far corners where some of the children had curled themselves up, somehow trying to hide from the reality of it all, "your parents should have told you about the dangers of wandering too far from home and that bit especially about strangers."

He should have felt pity in the bottom of his stomach or some place but that had all diminished. Kyle Richards was cold, the existence of the nightworld had changed him in so many ways and of course their new little enterprise had made him change his morals as well. Taking children like this had of course changed him, it had to because it wasn't only their life he was changing it was their whole being and the point of taking away every trace of a conscience that they had in the first place, could at least be called drastic.

They would take away that important part of their existence and replace it with a loyal obedience to their little company. The ones who couldn't be changed or even coerced would be executed in the company's own special way, an all too public way of course. It was a way to remind all their employees the consequences of disobedience, a lot of them took the life of killing and over spending like they had never lived any differently, but there were always one or two little indignant night worlders who despised the fact they were actually owned by humans.

Kyle fixed his eye on their only human in the room and silently praised her composure; she was sitting there in adrift of very dangerous yet petrified night worlders, yet out of all them she was the least afraid. It seemed to him that this didn't faze her at all, as if it was merely a small transition from her normal day-to-day routine. These were many of the reasons she had been chosen, even if her species did differ to all the rest.

"This won't be an easy ride," he cautioned them, "and there won't be any opportunities either where any of you can give up. You will either be digging yourself an early grave from this day on or you will accept this new way of life and strive forth in the direction we aim you in. You all understand me?"

He didn't expect an answer though and turned his back to the room of now future employees, a minuscule of a second later a child in mid launch fell to the floor lifeless, screams ruptured as he slowly turned around.

There was always one who would try their luck, one too stupid to realise that there was no escape, lucky for them though that they were given a second chance now. A highly electrical charge was the only thing between life and death for that boy.

Kyle nudged the temporally paralysed boy with his foot, "stupid," he remarked, the boy looked up at him, the only moving part of him was his blinking eyes. He looked at the rest of the group all of which would be separated, the shifters would be housed together with the lamia, the witches all together with the only human and of course they would all be separated by sex as well.

"You can either accept your fate or die an early death. In-fights won't be accepted, neither will prejudices; you will all learn the consequences of this soon enough anyway, this is the only life you will know now and the Company will be the parents you believe that you miss."

The sobbing eventually quietened, all trying to listen to this first lesson of many. "In the end it will be your decision after all of this if you want to see your family again." He looked at them gravely for a moment, not seeing the children before him but the people they would be in years to come. "But seriously it's doubtful that you would be able to, the people you will become are not the people your parents would want you to be."

He looked at the human girl; she would have the hardest time here.

Maybe not mentally, but from the others it was for sure, "and for you," he said, her green eyes meeting his, "it would be the hardest for them to accept out of all of them."

He turned away and headed for the door, stopped and looked back and surveyed them grimly, "welcome to A.S.G and from now on your new home."

* * *

As Kyle exited the room and automatically navigated his way through the maze of underground tunnels and up to the stairs, he sighed, joyful in the fact that the start of it was over. He led himself to the ground floor and into the house. He had grimaced at the start of this stupid construction, having all these legalities to make sure that the ones in the Company could be trusted, making sure they had no impostors in their mist, none of them would have been able to have gotten through the front door anyway. 

He pushed his hand on the scanner, seconds later the system authorised his entry and he made his way up to his room and his private suite, his own sweet privilege from working with this torturing company for too long. For letting it take over his life and making it one of the most important things of all.

He sat down at his desk, the oak smooth and cold against his fingers and for a moment he sat there. His eyes closed against the sun dropping now in the evening sky and for now all his work was done, he could at least pretend that he didn't have to worry about anything else.

But he knew he did, the demanding files were still on his desk piled on top of all of the other files, the ones filled with all the candidates, all the children who right about now were being shown their sleeping quarters downstairs in the bunker.

He opened his eyes and flicked on the desk side light and winced for a second as his eyes got used to the harsh glare. With an easy motion he threw the file open in front of him, the norm laid there.

The photographs, the investigation reports from their insiders at the FBI. So they had been looking into their little company again, only a few years back they had thought they were running a cult, a fallacy of course but not far from the truth than what really what was going on.

Brainwashing was certainly not from far it if nothing else, a cause that many of their poor unwilling recruits would stand by for the rest of their living days. He just sighed, rang down to one of the minor offices and ordered for the investigation team who were looking into their case to be themselves investigated, to see who was the easiest to turn, for the Company to buy their way out of the limelight.

With that over and done with, he put that one aside and opened the next one up in front of him, the recruit list lay there. He automatically crossed three names off, the children they had lost in transit. He wasn't exactly certain what happened to them but either way they hadn't ended up here in one piece and had put that down as personality flaws.

There would be many other names crossed off in days and weeks and years to come and each time the list would be reprinted off, getting shorter and shorter. His eyes kept on skipping to one name though, to Jessica Thompson. The one human downstairs, the one he had personally chosen and was taking the risk in it as well, they had never recruited a human before.

It seemed ridiculous; a human ran Company didn't employ their own kind for the most specialised work, the work they had to trust in the most. He shook his head; he had his reasons though, more than most of them would think. In the silent room his fingers tapped along the polished wood, he had always wondered how he had ended up here. How out of everything, out of all he had done. This, the one place he kept going back to. The one place he felt he belonged.

He stilled his hand, agitated by this annoying habit he had somehow obtained, he had found himself many times trying to block out that intrusive sound of silence, how it unnervingly scratched at the back of his mind constantly.

He sighed, revelling in the distraction. Maybe he had worked here too long after all. He shook his head and laughed, yes that must be it.

With that he closed the files on his desk and made his way to the connecting room, shutting the door behind him and the reminder of all the work piling up on his desk. For tonight he would rest, safe in the knowledge that a good days work had been done.

And safe in the knowledge that tomorrow, another day would be there. Bringing forth its own problems and the new recruits downstairs that would have to be shown the existence they would have to live through for the next few years.

* * *

Chapter One 

"So this is it," Kyle said as he accompanied their new guests along the rim of the training area.

"What are they doing?"

Kyle looked across to the speaker, a Mr Jonathan Rogers. Who in Kyle's own opinion was an over opinionated fat man who had made too many enemies and now needed their Company so he could get rid of them. Kyle finally looked away from the repulsive sweating man and out into the squad.

He rolled his eyes and turned back to Rogers, "they're playing," he stated as he led the group closer to the children.

"Playing?"

It was one of the Fat man's business partners who had made that morose statement, "it's a game called Bulldog," Kyle directed, pointing at the children who lined across one wall and some more that loitered in the middle, anxiously waiting for the others to try to make it to the other side.

"Much more aggressive mind you," he eventually stated as the children who were lined up against the wall hurtled themselves across the squad, smashing through and around the ones in the middle. The unlucky ones were grappled to the ground or tripped up, while the others made their way to the opposite wall and to safety. The caught one took their place in the middle with the catchers, automatically forgiving the person who had caught them, joining them in the art of integrating the exact same treatment to the others.

"I thought these were the trainees?" Rogers indignantly stated.

Kyle panned his dead eyed stare over to him and sighed in exaggerated patience, "yes they are, but they are also children. For them to survive they need to like living here and these are one of the activities that gives them that chance."

Rogers face stiffened, specifically ignoring the way Kyle was talking to him. "So, these night worlder" he surveyed his gaze over the children, "how would they be different to any other assassin?"

A malicious smile tugged at the corner of Kyle's mouth, he bit down on his bottom lip and turned around back to the children, "let me present you with an example."

Somehow Rogers had obtained secret knowledge of these people and didn't even seem to know what the hell he was speaking about. How very dangerous it was for him and everyone around him, when someone as stupid as him had that sort of knowledge, hopefully he wouldn't let too many more people find out about that secret. Because then, it wouldn't only be his Company who would forcible have to shut him up.

Kyle called out to the group, "Jess! Ryan! Make your way over here please."

They automatically stopped and did as he instructed, they wouldn't have survived the last few years if they hadn't learnt that lesson fast.

They stood in front of one of their instructors, Ryan even at ten who had a neat trick at unnerving his peers, something Kyle was sure the boy would master even more in the coming years. His gleaming silver eyes settled within a pale thin face that was framed with a mop of ash blond hair that only added more to his charm.

Jessica though was a different story, the only human in her year maybe but still a looker amongst her group; bedraggled black curls fell around her face and from a pale complexion her fierce green eyes beamed back.

"Jessica here is human," Kyle instructed, motioning her forward, "who I might say is the only one we're training, she is very quick and at the top of many of her classes."

He smiled at her and she beamed back happily, overjoyed, as all of them were when they got any individual attention. With the other arm he motioned Ryan forward, each on either side.

"Now Ryan," he cautioned, "isn't exactly human," he looked at Rogers sceptically, sure that the fat man had no real idea what the nightworld exactly was. This was Kyle's chance to steer him in the right direction and as least scare him.

He turned away from Rogers and down to Ryan, "Can you do me a favour?"

The boy smiled back devilishly, "what is it first?"

"You see these men," he said to him not looking their way, "well you see they think they know about the nightworld, but I think they don't exactly know all the details. When I say so, all you have to do is shift for me."

Amicably enough the boy nodded and Kyle turned back to the men, "You see Ryan here is a shapeshifter," he turned back to the boy, "now would be nice," he instructed.

So with a few unnerving clicks and pops the seemingly human looking boy somehow transformed and melded himself in to a dangerous looking Tiger.

The men backed up, Rogers sweating like a pig in heat while his terrified eyes darted everywhere, even at the children who were still innocently playing their little game, seemingly unaware of the transformation and if so not alarmed at all.

"Ryan that's all and thank you."

And within seconds the Tiger turned back into the seemingly human boy and hurried his way back into the crowd of children, the little girl not far behind.

Kyle crossed his arms waiting for Rogers' fit of frantic blinking to stop, "well that's the sort of thing we use in our methods," he smiled disarmingly, "drinks anyone?"

They all nodded and with anxious side-glances back to the playing children, they made their way back into the safety of the building and down to the business suite and to the drinks cabinet.

After pouring out Rogers and the others some whisky, for a fraction of a moment Kyle felt sorry for them. They downed their drinks and it was then that Kyle was remembering the feeling of absolute doubt when he first found out but within that second it was gone and he reminded himself how much Rogers really annoyed him.

Rogers' anxiously clutched the edge of the table that he leant back against, his knuckles whitening and his fat face taut. His face snapped up to Kyle, "how long have you known?"

Kyle just shrugged, "much longer than I've known you."

Kyle had unfortunately met Rogers about ten years back, at some Christmas party of a former boss. After a few moments Rogers finally collected his composure together and soothed back his straggling few hairs.

"It's just unnerving is all," he said icily and looked around at his business partners and back to Kyle, "they're just…"

"Unnatural?" Kyle added tonelessly.

"Yes, yes… that is exactly what I mean." And to that Kyle just laughed and how good it felt. He hadn't had a good reason to laugh like this for a year or two now and Rogers' stupidity was the perfect opportunity.

"These unnatural creatures were ruling the planet while we were still hiding in caves, no… they're the predators that's all," he looked particularly at Rogers as he said this, "the only reason they unnerve you is because you're afraid…" he motioned Rogers to be quiet. "It's nothing to be ashamed about, we all should be, prey have that right you see and that is all we are."

"And this doesn't worry you?" an unsettled laughter ruptured from

Rogers throat, "those children will eventually run rings around you. They're not even afraid of you!" Kyle just smiled, "they're not meant to be, fear has a habit of being turned into hate and what people fear and hate they try to destroy. The children respect us and we give respect back in return, by that method we all get what we want. Because I highly doubt that you have as many people willing to lie down their lives for you than

those children down there and the people that teach them." And with those unsettling words he turned back around, "now let me show you our teaching rooms." And led the way out of the room and into the long corridor that ran back down to the basement.

* * *

"There are many lessons we have to be taught in life and one of those are who to trust and who to not. We all make mistakes, at least once in one of these crucial lessons and learn from them. But you all know that in our line of business mistakes are not what we need." Jessica Thomson sighed and rested her head in her upturned hands. "I see you're not satisfied with this then Jess," Kyle concluded as his gaze isolated her out of the circle of students that sat mostly cross-legged a round him. 

"It's just that…" she shook her head.

"Go on, tell me."

"We need to make mistakes to learn," she stated, "but we learn all the time not to make any mistakes… if we can't make them, how can we ever know who we can trust?"

"Look around the room," he directed and with his words she turned her head round and panned around at the people, to the seemingly gentle witch Mia to the opinionated, but constantly honest Ryan.

"These are the people you can trust, even when the company comes into doubt, these are your blood brothers and sister. These are the ones who will bleed with you on missions and risk their lives for yours, the ones who don't see you as a human, a witch, a lamia or even a shapeshifter. They are the ones who see you as you are, the ones that you have grown up with, the ones that you trust… the ones you know out of all of them you don't have to doubt." She looked from her friends and back to Kyle, "what about you, when everything falls apart around us. Are you one of the people we can trust?"

He smiled at that, out of all of them she was the quickest, "that is for you to decide, but I hope that you can."

She nodded, "I hope so too."

He looked down and then back up and around at his students, the years had passed way too fast as usual. His students were now in their teenage years and as cocky and energetic as he remembered his own self such a long time ago now. Now the list of the recruits of 1986 had dawdled down to fourteen, only the best and most dedicated remained, even his little human

Jessica Thomson was still here. Six years on and he was still here as well, still teaching these soon to be killers. The children were all growing up and had disarming settled into their new life, exactly the same as all the others had, even their new batch. The company had a regime of trying to recruit new children every five years. The last batch hadn't been so successful; they had lost ten children already and in only two years.

He had to try to stop comparing the last batch of 1991 with 1986, but couldn't help himself. Over the last few years he had only lost eight with the ones of 1986, less than they had with 1991 in two years.

"Now tell me," he said refocusing his attention back into the room and onto his students, "what were we talking about the last time we were here?"

Ryan cocked his head up, "the art of deception sir."

"Oh yes, how could I have forgotten? Are you going to remind me of what was learnt?" he settled his gaze on Ryan and the boy stiffened and took the hint that he was the one Kyle wanted the answers from.

"There are many arts of it," he said nonchalantly, Kyle noted his glance quickly to Jessica and then back to himself. "Emotionally, physically," the boy shrugged, "you can even do it to your self sometimes without even knowing it, but the best way to make other people to believe it. Is to partially believe it your self. I don't really see what the big deal is about it; people do it all the time. All the way from door to door sales men who try to make their product seem better than it is, to children in the playground telling their friends animatedly how much more allowance they get then everyone else…"

Kyle had to give it to the boy, he was good and there were no questions about it. One of the best in their year, Jessica being one of the others of course; it was drawing to the time when they would have to set off to Japan and as always the knots in his stomach increased. He looked back to Ryan who was getting actively involved in what he was telling the class and as always Jessica was sitting near him, goading him on, smiling.

It was highly likely that those two would be paired together for their first assignment, they had a habit of working together now efficiently, even when they were planning a practical joke on the rest of their year. Best friends, what they were to him anyway. The Company had taken extra precautions at the start to locate their only human in the safest company, with the witches and away from the lamia and shapeshifters. But Jessica hadn't taken the same precautions and had automatically attached herself to one of the most dangerous nightworlders in the year.

Ryan had attached himself to her as well, teaching her to block her mind and also open it to him so they could communicate telepathically. Kyle still hadn't figured how they had done this, but had put it down to the fact that in the end that Ryan was the most powerful nightworlder in the year and was highly likely slipping into her mind even if she allowed it or not.

Which strangely didn't affect their friendship at all, even though Ryan was stolen from a highly political and anti human family, maybe that was probably the reason why. Ryan had surprised him one time, about five years ago now. About the time they were being taught the importance of realising the limits of their own mortality, he had come up to him and asked what would they do when Jessica got older.

Kyle being totally perplexed took him aside and asked him to explain. In Ryan's view he wanted to know who was going to change Jessica into a night worlder when she got older. Laughing, Kyle had asked why should they when she was happy being human now. Well, Ryan than had depicted the fault with being human and all the things you could fall ill with and how early she could die.

With a grim smile Kyle had made Ryan look all around the facility with him and showed him the hundred of humans that worked there as well. Telling him shortly that they were all human and did he expect them all to be changed if they fell ill or were in a dangerous situation?

Ryan had clearly stated No, he didn't expect that and when asked why he had told him why.

Told him that everyone else wasn't Jessica and Jessica needed to live as long as him and everyone else, because she was needed and special and with that Ryan asked if he could be excused and walked away.

Some things Kyle couldn't forget and nodded as Ryan talked on. Then the lunch bell rang and with a nod he excused the children and got himself up as they did and wandered to the door to leave. Jessica stayed behind, Ryan as normally in the background. This time outside the door waiting so they could go.

"Sir?"

He smiled at her, "yes Jessica?"

"Does it have to happen?"

Perplexed for a moment Kyle was stunned into silence and than gathered him self-together, "what does?"

"Things changing, I mean we have a habit of running our lives on a smooth path. Sure, ours may be run on the course of killing and deceit but we know what we're doing and we do it well." For a moment she looked vulnerable, but as always the moment passed. "But these doubts you talk about, about trusting and not being able to. By doing it or not doing it we're still going to be learning one of these lessons of yours and things in the end will have to change," she quickly glanced back to Ryan, "I don't want things to change."

"That's like saying you don't want the world to turn, night to turn into day or for the tides to come in. There is no way that you can do anything about it," he walked with her to the door, "and for most of it you won't even notice it's happening."

She looked at him grimly and then to Ryan who was now stood beside her, "but I will."

And with that she walked off. All of that off a thirteen year old, he didn't even want to imagine what she'd be like in years to come, hopefully as not assured the world was going to be so horrible as she felt it was now.

She'd learn, was all he could keep telling himself. He watched them as they rounded the corner and he set himself about making his way back to his room. They were off to Japan next month where they would be for nearly two years.

He only had to teach once a week and he always seemed tired these days, he was only fifty-two and suddenly felt far too old. Far too old amongst these dreaming youths, an middle aged man trying to teach children the lessons that they wouldn't have the time to learn themselves, how very ridiculous did that sound?

All he could do was sigh to himself and assure himself that he was doing his best and that was all he could keep doing.

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

With an easy signal, Jessica motioned Ryan to check out the last room. With a nod, he received the command and easily concealed himself in the shadows again as he snuck in.

The kills had been easy, easier than they both expected. But they knew the lessons they had been taught off by heart and checked the rest of the house to make sure that there were no traps.

Nothing here, he plainly rapped to the inside of her head; she went in after him and let out a sigh of relief.

"Now," she whispered drawing near to him, "the babysitter needs to be found first, maybe at the foot of the stairs, the children can be left where they fell."

As he went back downstairs without a single floorboard creaking she rechecked the rooms that the dead children lay in, making sure that nothing was going to be left behind.

She stopped for a second and glanced at the child in the cot. She shook her head and shut the door behind her as she left, she knew it shouldn't affect her and the rest hadn't.

The babysitter lounging guilelessly on the sofa had been easy without a second thought she had skilfully slit her throat from behind. They had been taught all these things, but on her first mission, their first mission; they had to go and kill innocent children.

It had been Ryan's job to take down the eldest first, a twelve-year- old girl. So while she had been getting rid of the one on the sofa he had gone upstairs before her, when she had gone up there she was left with the youngest two. Two little boys shared that room, a three year old who had woken up at the moment she had opened the door and had screamed.

He hadn't screamed for long and then when it was over she went over to the cot. The baby was waking up though, rubbing his eyes as he babbled incoherently and then as he had noticed her he had smiled and had raised his arms at her for him to be picked up.

He must have thought she was the babysitter; she had put down her bag then and had got out the plastic squeeze bottle of some very potent chemical. Keeping her face away she soaked a spare cloth with it and draped it on the side of the cot as she picked the baby up.

Lost in thought she made her way downstairs, Ryan guilelessly looked around to her as she carefully stepped over the girl at the bottom of the stairs. "They'll know she was on the sofa," he stated, "but I guess it's more dramatic this way."

She nodded, "yeah," she looked around the room for a moment, "come on we better get out of here and mingle."

He smiled at her and followed her to the back door, past the broken lock and back over the fence from whence they came. The dark alleyway cloaked them for now but people weren't far and they needed to look as inconspicuous as possible.

Jessica opened her bag and pulled her black top from over her head and pulled on a scraggly and torn and dirty looking long shirt. And then with a second motion pulled some baggy torn jeans over her black skintight pants.

She looked over to Ryan as she put on her makeup and laughed, "what are you meant to be?"

He sighed at her and snatched away her mirror as he tried to put on some very pale whitening powder, "what do you think I am?"

"A transvestite?" she quipped back.

He raised his eyebrows up at her, "I'm Dracula you idiot, what the hell are you meant to be?"

She shoved everything back into her small bag and swivelled around modelling her costume for him, "I'm a zombie, come on what did you expect me to be?"

He just shrugged as they made their way out of the dark lane and into the milling streets of young trick-or-treaters.

"What about a fairy princess?" he suggested as he looked about the children around him, she pinched him as he laughed at her.

They fitted in here, two fifteen year olds milling in and out of the kids, Jessica turned to Ryan for a moment. "I think we should have brought candy bags."

He laughed at that and shook his head, "yeah why not? What else would we have to do with our evening?"

And then he stopped dead, the colour draining from his face. Jessica turned to him and followed his wary gaze to a group of children with some older kids, maybe from the looks of it maybe eighteen or nineteen. But whoever they were, Ryan looked spooked.

She grabbed hold of his arm, "what the hell is…"

And that was all she got to as one of the older kids turned around to them, probably wondering why the hell they were stood frozen a few feet from them just staring.

An older boy looking scarily like an older version of Ryan stood there with a confounded look on his face, Jessica tightened her grip on Ryan's arm, as the older boy took a step forward, Ryan took a stumbling step back.

"Ry… Ryan?" the boy stuttered a pure look of anguish on his face.

From the death grip on his arm, Jessica could feel his heart beat go into overdrive; his voice came out stammered and shaky, " Jess, Jess we should go now."

All she could do was nod and without taking their eyes off the boy they backed up slowly.

"Ryan, Ryan please can you just wait, I just want to know what happened. Where the hell have you been?"

And that was the moment Jessica felt sorry for the guy and she stopped and eased her hand down into the palm of Ryan's and gripped hard.

"I think he should know," she stated, "he should know and then we have to go home, they'll worry if not."

He looked aside at her, "I can't, they never told us what to say if we ever met them again."

"Just tell him what he needs to know, what he needs to hear."

And with her words he returned his stare back to his sibling, "hi," as always he was the one for understatements.

"Is that really you Ryan?" and Jessica could see for a moment that the boy opposite them wasn't exactly the same as Ryan, his eyes gleamed an unearthly golden colour.

"Yeah, its me… you can't, it'd be better if you don't tell Mum or Dad about this though."

And with that the boy literally emotional exploded, "What the hell do you mean? You've been missing for the last eight years, God! I don't even know who you are!"

Jessica fidgeted beside him, "Ryan, I think you should hurry this up, they want us back within the hour."

The boy's eyes met hers and she stood her ground. Nightworld she might not be, but she hadn't survived the last eight years for nothing.

"Danny… I'm sorry," and with Ryan's words Jessica's heart melted, she would never have believed he could sound so vulnerable, "when we're allowed, I promise I'll come and see you. But things, things you'd never understand have happened and there's no walking away from It," He looked at Jessica for a moment, "for any of us."

The boy called Danny looked down, "when?"

Ryan took a deep breath, "after I'm eighteen they said we get our own place and work from then on. A month after my birthday, on 17th January we'll meet, you and me at that diner," a trace of a smile crossed his lips, "remember that diner that you told me was our special meeting place?"

"How can I be sure you'll come?"

"I'll come and if something has happened to me by then," he took a deep breath and looked at Jessica, "she'll go along, she'll go and tell you everything." He looked back to Danny, "is that good enough?"

"No," he said clearly.

"Well I can't do anything else, I'll see you then." And with that

Ryan turned around and walked away, if Jessica's hand wasn't clutched in his she wouldn't of felt his rapidly beating heart betraying his calm exposure. After checking behind them five minutes later to see if he was gone, Jessica let go of Ryan's hand and from then on didn't mention anything about the peculiar event until two years later.

* * *

Jessica stretched her arms above her head and yawned; it was then that Ryan found his perfect moment to poke her in the ribs. She looked aside to him accusingly and shook her head as she laid herself back down on the warm grass and closed her eyes as the sun warmed her face.

She heard another complaint of boredom from Ryan and another poke in the ribs, she sat her self up then and set her smouldering eyes on him, "and what is wrong with you exactly?"

"I'm bored!"

She raised her eyebrows, "I could never have guessed!"

He ignored that particular comment and frowned, "it's January next month," he reminded her as he started shredding the poor grass around him.

She half smiled, "well that month does normally follow December, we'll go and have to see Kyle later." She said changing the subject.

"Why?"

She rolled her eyes, "we just came out of the company compound," she reminded him, "the compound that has so many camera's you could confuse the place with Hollywood. The place which you just had a very public dispute with Arnold in and when I say dispute I mean a big ugly fight where you broke two of his ribs and his nose."

Ryan just looked drolly at her, "your point being?"

She just frowned; she knew the reason for that fight even if he wasn't going to tell her. Once again it had been about them two, about how he would rather spend most of his time with a human than with some of his own.

"They'd have seen the fight and I'd rather be there to back you up and say he started the fight before he can get his niche in anywhere…" she set her eyes on him and sighed, "you know they'll punish you right?"

He nodded, "yeah," he knew the consequences of disobeying the rules made by the company. The thing was that Arnold wasn't in their lot of assassins and hadn't been trained with her and the rest. He was the lot from 1993 and had stupidly enough provoked Ryan, no one with half a brain would have done that. Arnold was just lucky that Jess had been able to stop the fight before Ryan got really mad.

"I'm going to have to see Danny next month," he finally declared.

All she could do was smile; she knew he had been drawing upon that subject hoping that she would bring it up. They hadn't even talked about it since that night and time had flew by with an unbelievable speed, kill after kill, now they all seemed to have melded all into the same old thing.

"Do you miss them?" she laid herself down and leant on her side, her elbow drawn up so she could lean her head on her hand.

He sighed, "sometimes, but I guess you can tell that when I go into one of my moods."

"Yeah, I've noticed. But you were happy with them right? Happy being the person you were?"

He shrugged, "I try not to think about it, I mean… I still do though." he paused and looked at her seriously, "I don't know, I think about it sometimes. I mean I was happy, but I was going nowhere, I was just this kid being drawn into all this nightworld crap and letting everything else pass me by. You see if I hadn't been chosen and kidnapped," he laughed at that part and his eyes lit up with his old twinkling irony, "if I wasn't taken I wouldn't have learnt all the things I know now and sure I'd be a lot more ignorant about the ways of the world and probably be more happy… but I wouldn't be me and I wouldn't have met you and I don't think I'd want to live like that."

"You're just a charmer," she rebuked, slightly disappointed by his words.

A flash of a smile appeared and than within a second vanished, "why don't I know anything about your family, why don't you ever speak about them?"

Jess rigidly sat her self up "there's nothing really to say."

But Ryan's voice said differently though, "you know everything, to how many brothers and sisters I have, from how difficult my mum's labour was with me, Jess look at me… tell me why you don't speak about them."

She stood up and brushed cut grass and dirt off of her clothes, she looked down at him solemnly, "my mother…" she gulped when she said this and she resisted eye contact, "my dad was…" she shook her head and she turned away.

Within a second, Ryan was stood beside her and held onto the side of her arm, she looked up at him, his silvery eyes glistering. "No worries, you don't have to tell me."

"I just figure she's happier without me, she has a new family now. Come on, who'd rather have a daughter like me, compared to normal kids?"

She couldn't see the look of disbelief on Ryan's face but she could hear his words, "you seem to be the better choice," he stated.

She laughed, "I don't believe you, come on lets get your punishment over and done with."

"What, so you can gloat?"

A smile curved on her lips, "why else?"

* * *


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

He sat there in the diner, the air humid and sticky. He had sat in here ever since it had opened and now the clock was running into his third hour sitting here. He didn't even want to know what the Diner waitress thought about him, him sitting there all that time. He didn't notice the girl walk through the door though, he wasn't supposed to. Jessica automatically clocked him and slipped into the seat opposite him, belying the unease she felt about taking Ryan's place.

The puzzled look on his face only increased and finally he resolved to something, "sorry I'm meeting someone…"

She laughed, dry and humourless, "you know what? I never believed Ryan when he said arrogance ran in his family… but now it seems I owe him an apology."

A kind of cold acknowledgement ran through him then, "he hasn't got himself killed, has he?"

She shook her head, "no, detained. I guess that's what you can call it."

Jessica didn't like it in here, out of all of her time being able to go out on her own, having this strange yet artificial freedom, she hadn't yet conditioned herself to feel comfortable with the company of human's yet. Her own kind and she couldn't even sit in a public place with them and relax.

Dan nodded, he was older now, but she had noticed that before. She had noticed that within the few seconds she had entered this dingy diner. He was still his tall self, like Ryan and his eyes were still that eerie golden colour. She had only met him once that Halloween but the occasion had been special enough and she couldn't exactly let any memory of that evening slip, the actions before that meeting especially.

He hadn't noticed her lapse in thought and sat icily in front of her, "So you going to tell me?"

Yes they had agreed on that hadn't they, or more like the fact Ryan had agreed on it. She wasn't comfortable with this situation at all, mainly because she had no way of controlling it. Even admitting that fact showed another one of her weaknesses.

She only nodded, now in the habit of only talking when vitally important, another lesson that the company had taught her and that had stuck. "A less public place would be more suitable though."

He looked around, seemingly surveying their audience and a little nod from him self confirmed this; "sure, I see your point."

Jess let him get up first; she didn't trust him enough yet for him to walk behind her. That was a blind spot she wasn't yet ready to expose to him. He led the way out of the diner, the odd sticky patches of the floor making that discomforting suction noise as they made their way out.

And for a moment Jess winced as she took her first couple of steps out into the hot summer day, the sun glared down at her. She turned away from the harshness of it, their eyes met and she moved her head to motion him to follow her. She didn't notice the odd look he gave her, even though about half of her senses were on him beside her and the rest of the other inhospitable crowd that milled around them.

She led him to the park; it was packed with children running and adults wandering around, a wonderful place for the Company to get the fill for their next batch of trainees, but the thought left her as she noticed the fact that the place lacked in nightworlders. They sat on a bench that faced the duck pond, the playground only being a few yards away so the public scene wasn't completely dismissed.

He looked at her then and she could see him thinking, the same thoughts all their kind mulled about, the fact that she was human and that she was more or less as strong as them. It had taken a couple of years to find out why this disturbed them so much. In the end Ryan had told her, told her that the only equivalent that the nightworld outsiders could put up against her were the human hunters; The ones that hunted down the nightworlders with a ruthless hatred and a stupid earnestness that only seemed to clarify the situation to their own demented kind. She supposed she could sympathise with their cause, it was obvious that they were hunting what they were afraid of.

And the look faded, considerable faster than the others and an unsettling coolness entered his eyes, uneasy for her because she had only seen it in others of her kind who were in her trade before. She smiled to herself then, not exactly her own kind exactly. Something she only occasionally hiccupped with these days but one she reprimanded herself on each time.

"I guess you want to know," this was the part she wasn't looking forward to, but with the help of Ryan they had decided that the straight to the point tactic would be the best.

"Yeah, well that's why I'm here."

She didn't like him and she couldn't keep the feeling down, "we kill people," she blurted, now deciding she could have worded it better.

A slow nod and his eyes were glued to the scene in the duck pond, the murky water somehow pulling him in. "Not wanting to look stupid but you did just proclaim you kill people, right?"

"Yeah I did and Ryan does as well and everyone in our Company. We kill, only for money of course. We do exactly what we were trained to do, what I've been trained to do since I was seven."

Even though she had worded it as well as she possible could, he still sat there. Still with that blank yet visible confounded look on his face. When he did speak, he didn't exactly say what she was told to expect.

"You any good?"

"Of course, it's what we live for. Well, what the Company has made us live for anyway, because well we were kind of killed if we didn't and then well we wouldn't be living at all…" she stopped, realising she had been babbling and sat there her knees rammed together, letting the aching tension in her legs remind her not to get comfortable in this stranger's company.

"What do you do, I mean apart from killing of course."

She narrowed her eyes at him for a second, not realising at all how penetrating her overpowering green eyes could be sometimes. She decided in the end that it wouldn't really hurt telling him.

"Kidnapping, assaults, we bully as well but mainly we assassinate. You remember the night you bumped into Ryan? Well that was one of our missions, a politician lived around the corner and we had to…" she stuttered on this part, after all these years it still affected her, one kid and she was a stuttering wreck, " we killed the guys family."

And he nodded, "yeah, I heard about that. A bit harsh wasn't it? They were only children and from the sound of it they were slaughtered."

"They were eliminated in the most efficient way," she sounded exactly like Kyle would have explained it in one of his little lessons, " we were paid for that kill. We don't ask questions we just do as we're instructed," her eyes grounded into him again looking for that little bit of disgust whenever child killers were talked about, "from what I heard it was another Politician that paid for that job."

That proclamation didn't seem to surprise him, "well this isn't exactly something I can tell my parents, is it?"

"I wouldn't tell them anything for now, Ryan has another week in the compound and then he's allowed to go back to his civilian home. They'll keep an eye on him for a day or two and then he can meet you and then sort the rest out."

"What did he do?"

She couldn't help but smile and within a second it had gone, she had heard what had happened to Arnold. Her group were through with those types of punishments now but Ryan's little stunt had put them in the limelight again.

"He got into a fight," it was as simple as that, "he broke the guys nose and a couple of his ribs, it was his own fault. Everyone knows not to get in a fight with Ryan."

"Why?"

His eyes shifted from hers after awhile, she hadn't wanted to get that scary stare but it came with the job, reluctantly she revealed why, "because he always wins, Ry's scary because he's unpredictable," an odd smile then, "well to most he is anyway. People never know what he's going to do and when he does, he does it fast and well." She shrugged and turned away, "Ryan's what a lot of people should be scared of, but a lot of them are too blind from playing around in their own little world to see what's really going on."

Jess stood up, the heat scorching her bare skin and the sun still too bright, "Ryan will meet you here on this bench in two weeks at 12pm. It was nice to meet you Dan," she lied, "and I hope you have a nice life."

And with that she turned away and made her way out of the park, disregarding the way they had come in and taking a path through the trees and eventually disappearing through the foliage. It wasn't until she had totally disappeared and he had been sitting there mulling over the last ten minutes was that he realised that he had never introduced him self and felt uneasy about the fact that she already knew his name.

He shook his head and stood up. With that his friends appeared out of the surrounding scenery and smiled at him, they had watched, watched just in case something had gone wrong. They met him as he made his way out by the playground and silently made their way home.

That girl had disturbed him, a simple human had and even that thought had confused him even more.

A simple human who he was sure could kill him with a blink of an eye and not think a thing about it afterwards. He suddenly thought of the thing his little brother had turned into and fretted over the monster he would meet in a couple of weeks.

* * *

"We were being watched," she added as she sat upside down in the armchair beside Ryan's bed. She was waiting for that crucial moment that all the blood rushed to her head, her hair swept along the carpeted floor, creating a tidal wave of rich black hair. She smiled to herself and realised how warped Ryan looked from upside down.

"What do you mean by that?" he was sitting elegantly on his bed, his long legs dangling over the side.

"Exactly what I just said, I guess he knew them. I was sure I saw people follow us when we went to the park and then at odd moments when he didn't think I'd notice he'd clock people that were in the park. They didn't have any equipment but I guess he didn't trust me."

She paused then and got up from her position, gasping for a moment as the sweep of dizziness rushed to her head and then looked at Ryan, "or didn't trust you, either way they were there."

All he could do was nod, she instantly regretted her words; she had hurt him and even though it wouldn't be visible to others she could see it in the depths of his eyes.

She sat on the edge of the bed, "but maybe they turned up on their own accord?"

His head went up and his eyes glowered into hers, "come on we know that's not true, my own brother doesn't trust me."

And she felt sad for him, but they both had to admit the truth, "if I was him, I wouldn't trust us. Come on, we've been missing, what? Eleven years and then what? Near the end of the eighth year he bumps into you, you seeming absolutely healthy and unwilling to go back home. I would have to figure something was definitely going on."

"I hate it when you're right."

Her hand came over his and she squeezed it, "well, I hate it too, he'll meet you there in two weeks."

He nodded and didn't move, "I want you watching, somewhere he won't see you but where I know you're near. I don't want him to go neurotic on me because I won't change and go trotting back home," his eyes searching met hers, "I don't want to get mad and hurt him."

All she did was nod, "I won't let you,"

"Good."

* * *

Kyle looked across at his pupils; he shook that thought aside immediately for they no longer needed teaching. He set the files down on the desk and explained the expected outcome of their next assignment.

Jessica and Ryan sat on one side while Mia and Gunner sat on the other, it was unusual for more than one set to be used but this was a big job and all of their skills were needed.

He looked at Mia, "you and Gunner will start at the top floor of the building and start the binding spell on the place, you'll start it just after midnight so everyone should be there," he looked at Jess and Ryan this time, "and if not, don't worry about it, we'll get our desired outcome anyway."

He had to look back at Mia and Gunner again, Mia being their best Witch in the compound and the most vicious at times as well. This group would be efficiently measured out, one witch, lamia, shapeshifter and human. Each there with their own skills, "Jess and Ryan will start on the ground floor, at an organised time between yourselves you will then clear out every room."

They knew what they meant and it had nothing to do with cleaning, "if you use a gun, a silencer would be necessary, I don't need to stress how silence is crucial here. You have to do twenty-four flats, each one has one bedroom and there are six on each floor. Mia's spell should work well enough to keep everyone in and I don't need to remind you to cut the phone lines. Mia and Gunner will work down and Ryan and Jess will work up, I'll give you the file to review over but do you all understand?"

They all nodded and as usual there was Jess with a question, "Why doesn't it matter if we don't get all of them?"

"I only mean on the off chance that one of the residents is away for the night, its going to be a bloodbath in the morning and who we've been contracted by someone who wants the building cleared, so future schemes for the place can be carried out. Because no one really wants to live in a place where a mass homicide happened."

She just nodded at that and sat there quietly, he frowned. "I guess you've all heard about my imminent retirement?"

They all nodded and Jess whined, "You've got years left in you until you need to retire."

"I'm getting old," he looked down at his wrinkled skin and thought about all those wasted years, "and I'm getting tired, this is a young person's game and I've been here too long."

She could see it in her eyes that she didn't believe him but she let the subject slip, realising that there was nothing left to say, he excused them and went back around to his desk and put the folder into the soon to be done pile, one of the many piles on his desk.

He had let his life pass him by so quickly and now he realised all the mistakes he had made. But he had made up for it though, made up for it as he brooded on his darkened office and decided he couldn't let his life carry on like this.

He had let everything go for this place, he had been in love once and with that thought a dry laugh escaped his throat. He was sure he had loved her, but that seemed such a long time ago now, when everything had been starting and he had thought that a career was more important than her. She had left him in the end.

He had come home to a dark empty house, his wife who in the end had gone off to be with someone else. How could he have missed that, the truth was that he was never looking for it in the first place. So she went off and slept in someone else's bed and eventually had someone else's children, children that should have been his.

And he had let all of that slip by; he had seen her the other week.

Her standing there with a young girl and a baby; she had smiled at him and introduced him to her daughter and grandchild. She had been so nonchalant, this is an old friend was all she said, an old friend?

That wasn't how he thought of her. Not his sweetheart, his songbird, his lost chance. No he had truly lost everything for this damn company, but he shook his head. He had willingly lost everything even if he noticed it or not. And the situation with that Arnold boy had only brought all these dark thoughts to light.

He hadn't liked giving out that execution order and had wandered away as they had carried it out in the Squad. He didn't have the stomach for it anymore and now after all these years, his heart decided to resurface.

Stupid old fool was all he could think to himself. An old fool who had let too many things all ready pass him by and even in his half hearted retirement he knew that he would never be able to get it back.

He had lost and even though he didn't want to admit it, the Company had won.

* * *


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

And the laughter ran down the empty hallways as Mia and Gunner met them half way up the stairs to the next floor, "all done I guess," was all Jess could muse.

The assignment had been easy, but it always was these days, a walk in the park as Kyle kept saying.

Her gaze swept past Mia and Gunner and forlornly up the rest of the flight of stairs, like down here a tide of death had erupted up there. She turned around and walked down with the rest letting Ryan and Mia lead, Mia with her long white hair and blue eyes, she was pretty. Ever so pretty that every girl she met was jealous of her, Jessica included.

She could be jealous at times she knew, but what the admiration of her beauty brought the others to, well she could live without death, if that made sense at all. And Gunner, Gunner was gorgeous. A lamia with a flashing smile and grey eyes that you could drown in, they had dated for a while but it just grew too weird.

In some sense Jessica knew she was somehow Ryan's possession even if this didn't mean they were dating, as she was Ryan's, Ryan was hers.

The uncomfortable silences between Gunner and Ryan only grew and the decision to end it seemed the only way out, there were no hard feelings about it. Gunner had enough women trailing after him anyway and what did one human matter?

Mia easily discarded the binding spell and they walked their way over the fallen that had thought that they could run to safety and make their way out of the building. The spell had done its deed well and like everything else was forgotten about once it wasn't needed.

She followed them in silence, got in the car and said not a word as they dropped her outside her place, somehow noticing her mood; Ryan got out as well and followed her up.

The place was dark when she opened the door and the blinds were sharply shut down against the rising sun. Their routine didn't actually depict a routine at all, so sleep was at random and when she could get it and little things like daylight wasn't exactly yearned for at these times.

She slipped off her shoes and turned to grope for the light switch at the side of the door and like a birth of a new day, light suddenly flooded the room. With Ryan still behind her she trailed her way into the kitchen and opened her near to empty fridge, always on the impulsive thought that someday food would suddenly appear out of nowhere in there, without her even having to go shopping for it.

With another miracle not carried out she shut the fridge and made her way to her bedroom and through the open door, without even bothering to turn on the light she made her way through and collapsed on her bed. Like a shadow, Ryan silently followed her and sat at the side of her bed, not saying a word.

Yet for Jessica the silence grew so loud that it felt like it was going to burst her eardrums in the end so she poked him in the ribs as she lay on her side, "why you following me?"

He shrugged and to ease the tension, he lied, "I couldn't be bothered for the twenty minute drive to my place."

"It would have only taken ten at this time in the morning."

He lay down on the bed next to her and kicked off his shoes, "well you can't get rid of me now."

And she didn't really want to anyway, she sighed and shifted over so he had some room and suddenly she felt a thousand years older.

"What's wrong?"

She looked at him when he said that and simply smiled, and the word 'nothing' was at the tip of her tongue but she shut her mouth and closed her eyes.

"Do you ever feel you're in the wrong type of job?"

Ryan laughed, "a surreal question to ask, especially in our line of work… its like asking Oil Companies if they support Green Peace."

Her own uncomfortable laugh didn't seem to remove the tension in her stomach, "well it was only a question."

She felt his hand stroke some hair away from her face and as her eyes flickered open, for the first time Ryan could see the torment there and within a moment it was covered and she was looking way.

"I wanted to work in a zoo when I was a kid and you know what? I think that my parents would have let me, I was a spoilt little brat…"

"I could never tell," Jess dryly retorted.

"Oih princess I can't exactly seeing you putting down hired assassin as one of your career prospects when you were in school."

She smiled to her self; her eyes closed, where her mood was attuned to the soft breathing of Ryan, her muscles relaxed and she was at ease, "I wanted to be an Artist, everyone told me I was really good," something flickered in her voice, "I think it was the only time I saw my mum smile near the end was when I was painting and when I brought that stuff home from school. She looked really pretty when she smiled."

Warm arms came around her and she opened her eyes to find Ryan beside her, his head above hers. She let the gesture slide and settled down and closed her eyes and let the soft thrumming of Ryan's heart send her off to sleep.

* * *

The corridor was cool and Kyle walked down it with a silent pleasure as the fresh breeze caressed his sweaty and wrinkled skin, tingling it into a new awakening and for now throwing away the aching feeling from his reoccurring insomnia.

He had never killed anyone, never even drawn blood, he paused in his pacing then and corrected him self, he had never pre-planned to draw someone's blood. He'd been in his drunken Yob stage and had beaten a few arrogant drunks but apart from that he hadn't had the stomach for anything else.

He didn't even have a criminal record and what did he do for his living? He signed papers and briefed his assassins, sure they were not really his, but he had helped to train them. He briefed them on their assignments where they went out and ruthlessly killed people.

No matter what their gender, their age or even their creed. They had gone emotionlessly on with their mission.

He had helped to mould them; he had never had a conscious back then, so when did he suddenly grow this one? Where was the guy who had told sobbing children that there was no way out accept death? The one who had stared vacantly as the students went out and hunted down brought convicts?

He had changed so much along the way he hadn't even noticed, hadn't noticed the way he had suddenly fallen from grace with his wife, he only seemed to have gotten the gist when he found his empty house one night. He hadn't been home for so long he wasn't even sure if she had left recently or not and like everything else he had put that down as it being for the best. Emotions and relationships didn't mix with his type of work and how right he had been.

He resided in his pacing and stilled himself in front of the open window and let his gaze out into the outside world, something he so rarely saw these days. The sun was slowly rising from its sunken hiding place and now making its appearance seen. He had been so senseless over the years and now he realised he was suddenly too old to reset all his mistakes.

He used to have so many dreams and now, now so many of his regrets took over them. He was literally dead inside, living for a job that was grounding him down to fine dust. But retirement, his retirement was soon to be due. He was in progress of training his successor, after it had taken him a couple of weeks to find the right one, now all he had to do was go over the basics with her.

Yes, a woman to take over his place. It had surprised him as much as the others, the only suitable person was a woman, but he saw the same light in her eyes that he used to have when he first entered this job, he just wished that she wouldn't have the same fate as him and slowly crumble away as his conscience rose to the surface.

Because out of all of it, he knew that was the one thing to blame. All of those years he had been so callous, and now, well what he was now was clear to see. He turned away from the window and headed back to his suite as he heard stirring in the rest of the building and shut the door firmly behind him.

His hand hovered over the phone and he suddenly turned away, the yearning in him to hear a familiar voice being quashed by protocol.

He would have phoned Jessica, his favourite student out of them all and the brightest, but he would have no reason to really call, the mission should have been completed by now but they were due to come in this afternoon about that.

He went back into his room and lay down on his bed and stared wistfully at his bedroom ceiling, he would be gone soon. Gone to somewhere, where his conscience wouldn't be constantly reminded of its crimes.

* * *

Ryan left before Jess was fully awake; he had crept out leaving her sleeping behind. Her being what she was meant that he had to make allowances for her, the only one he had ever had to make for her though was that she slept longer than him. He didn't really care though, she looked cute when she was asleep, none of the seriousness was etched on there and he could see the little girl there that she was such a long time a go.

He yawned and closed her door behind her as he sat himself on the couch before making the decision to leave altogether, the long descent down the stairs let his mind unwind. He never had a particular liking towards elevators, stairs were quicker and much more efficient if you were being attacked, simply more room.

He had meant to tell her last night, after all that time being locked in that damn compound he had finally decided enough was enough. He was going to sit her down and simply tell her. How hard could it be? But it had been. No matter how hard he had tried to let the words fall from his lips he couldn't say them and then she had fallen asleep in his arms.

Somehow lengthening his torture even more. How hard was it to say?

'I like you Jessica.' Those words weren't too hard. But she already knew that he liked her and then he would have to explain that he didn't like her in that way but in another. He should have said,

'I've fallen in love with you and every thought of you torments me.' Maybe he should leave the torment bit out, he had been going over this for the last three weeks and still he was nowhere nearer to telling her.

The afternoon sun scorched down and he took out his sunglasses from his pocket and put them on. In public he had to do this, his pupils had a habit of fully contracting when the full beat of the sun was out like this and his eyes were simply a swirl of molten silver with a tiny speck of black where his pupil should be. That was the problem with being feline and having to walk around in public with humans.

Jess loved his eyes and would stare at them when they were kids as she kept flicking a flashlight in them to watch them change, but her eyes were more beautiful. Her deep greens eyes that spoke of so many things that he knew he could only read, it was hard to describe the colour of her eyes. From far off her eyes looked so intense and like a murky tropical forest ready to consume you. But close up they were different shades of green, a deep seaweed green ringing around the outside and flecks of rainforests filling in between.

And the point was that he could never tell her these things to her, face to face and he had tried, so many times now. He wanted to shift and run the rest of the way home but that would mean being seen and punished and he didn't fancy being punished by the company again.

The last time had been tediously boring enough. He stopped mid-step and heard the curses of the people around him as a couple of them bumped into him and then made an adjustment and walked around him. He swiftly turned around and headed back to her flat and opted for the now or never choice. He silently cursed himself for being such a fast walker and dragged his feet back the way that he came.

* * *

Out of all the things he had done in his short life, out of the killing, even the training. This was one of the hardest, the fact that he might have to face rejection if she didn't feel the same way. And that was around about the same time the doubt resurfaced again and the walk back seemed too short. Where was all the time he needed to think about this? He was suddenly outside her building; he made his way inside and up to her door.

Jess stood at the start of the long corridor, the door against her back and her eyes in slits as she strained to see into the darkness in front of her. The corridor was eerily long, had that feeling of stillness in the air as if Death himself was waiting around the corner.

She took a deep breath, trying to remember how she had gotten here and desperately trying to depict where she was before. She was sure she was with Ryan so how come she had ended up here, how come he was nowhere in sight? She reached out for him with her mind, opening it to his distinct thoughts.

It was a blank, wherever he was. He wasn't here.

"I am Jessica Thomson," she muttered to herself, determined to keep that truth about her self in mind unless she forgot about it like everything else. She urged herself on; remembering the lessons the company had veered her through. Do not self-doubt, doubt is the starting cracks in the self and you need your whole self to succeed in what you do.

And she wanted to get out of here, simply said yet not simply done. She wanted Ryan, Ryan to hold her hand as he had done when she had felt like giving up in the training. An easy way to grow up that was, when a nine year old accepts death as the only way out, it takes an even stronger nine year old to lead her the way out.

She took a step forward. A light flickering to the side taking her interest, she followed the light as if re-enacting a scene from a very bad Seventy's horror flick, she was expecting an spine chilling shadow over her shoulder any second.

It took her a matter of seconds to reach the corner; her feet seemed to float and her head felt all light, whatever was going on. It wasn't right, none of this was. She rounded into another corridor, the light bulbs flicked in this, off, on, off, on. She was scared and it felt strange she hadn't had this feeling since she had finished her training; it was like she was feeding off it now; something to keep her going through the chill and the deceiving light.

"I will not run, I will not run," the more she said this the more she thought she would believe it. The corridor ended and a reinforced metal door stood in her way. Her hand went to the handle; it was about this time the sensible part of her mind kicked in; its whispers filled the rational side of her mind.

If there was a metal door like that there, wasn't it most likely there to keep something in or out another strand quipped. She spun around, looking into the shadows every time the light flicked on; she half expected something to be in front of her when the lights flicked back on again. But there was nothing, nothing there but the growing urge to open the door.

Her hands grasped the handle and turned it, it sounded a heavy thud but stayed where it was. She looked around the frame and found intricately made bolts along the edge and what seemed the remains of a heavy lock.

She disregarded it almost immediately and began opening them. When the last one was pulled across she pulled the door open and a blinding light burst through the doorway.

Jess sat up with a gasp of air and was confronted with a distraught Ryan at the foot of her bed.

"Are you alright?" was all he seemed to enquiry.

As she tried to get as much oxygen in her lungs as possible she frantically nodded, "yes, yes, must have been a bad dream. Just a dream."

* * *


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Danny watched the screen, the videotape playing its evidence, he looked over to the man leaning against the table, "and this was from a year ago?"

The man nodded and Danny returned his gaze to the screen, what he could see Ryan and the girl Jessica were on a security camera making their way up to the top floor of the building. The tape expertly edited as it switched from camera to camera.

He turned again to the man behind him, "are you sure they were unaware of the cameras?"

Again the man nodded, "my boss has been interested in the activities of this company for a very long time. We got a call saying that this person would be hit in the next couple of days, so we put secret cameras in the place and witched them so that they couldn't be sensed."

He turned back again satisfied for now with the answer. He watched as Ryan took the lead and the girl trailed behind making sure that they weren't seen, in an odd moment of intimacy the girl came up behind Ryan, touched his sleeve and whispered something in his ear. He suddenly laughed and shook his head as they both rounded the corner to the stairs that led to the roof.

For a few moments the screen went blank, "what's happening?" he asked not taking his eyes off the screen.

"We didn't foresee that they would go up to the roof, in a couple of minutes you will catch them again in the room as they make their way in by the window."

"By the window?"

"Just watch," the man calmly replied.

And he did, he watched as the window was expertly slid across, the camera flicked to the other room quickly where three nightworlders sat watching the TV. The next moment the scene was on the black clad pair again as they crept their way to the door and looked between the crack that revealed the unaware trio.

Dan suddenly felt like shouting out, warning the trio of their danger, but the reminder that it had already happened crept into his mind. This was not like the video nights he would have with his friend while they munched on popcorn and watched horror flicks; this was his own little brother doing something he would have never believed.

Something he was secretly mortified watching, the next scene made him gulp. Within a blink of an eye they slid the door open and took down two of the nightworlders down. The human making it look easy, as she didn't even break out a sweat as she took a sweeping swipe at one of the guys.

He winced as he could now see it was a wooden bokken she was swinging about. The last nightworlder stood stricken and in shock amongst his fallen colleagues. In an unnerving predatory movement the girl neared him and took out his legs with the bokken, he fell on his back against the hard floor.

The girl unceremoniously sat on him; glints of some evil looking knives appeared from Ryan's jacket and he passed them coolly down to her. The coolness of the girls eyes bothered him, without a dip of concentration she leant closer to the man underneath her and started talking to him, dangling the knives now just above the victim's head. Without turning around Danny asked another question, "what are they doing?"

The man cleared his throat with a small cough and started forwarding the tape, "they persist in this way to get the gentlemen to talk about his dealing for the next half an hour," he said nonchalantly, he stopped the tape, "they're rounding up about now."

The man pinned to the floor looked terrible, blood was covered all over his face, what was once a beautiful nightworld face was now consorted to a bloody wreck of what could be called some sort of feature.

Danny sighed as at last he saw a quick movement from the girl and the body finally slumped to the ground. The girl stood up and dusted herself down as she went to the kitchen and washed herself clean.

Danny sat there confounded, Ryan might not have been the one doing the torture scene there but he saw his face, as he stood behind the girl emotionless. It was if he was watching primetime TV and nothing much had taken his fancy and that human, that girl Jessica. He had been chatting with her only a few days ago, that eighteen year old who didn't look like she would hurt a fly.

He suddenly realised the danger of taking things at face value. He turned away from the screen and stood up, "Do you have any other information about the company that took my brother?"

The man nodded, "there's some files you can take home with you on your way out, if your able to turn your brother or even the human girl, you know where to send them first."

Danny nodded, he had been lucky enough that he had found this place; he would never have guessed that the Nightworld could be afraid of Ryan's new home. But now he saw the video he could only settle with them in their fears, the teenagers they had trained from childhood had become ruthless and efficient and even more scarily, they had become nothing but loyal to the company that had taken them.

* * *

Jessica sat cross-legged in front of him, "you having a party?"

Kyle just shook his head, "I'm not one for big do's and you know me, I'd rather slope out rather than be noticed."

She smiled at him, the fondness shining through his eyes. Somewhere during the years the teacher had become her equal and now was even like a father figure to his one big risk.

"Well I'll have to try to get you a cool present…" she paused for a second, "will it be alright if we see you after you leave? Because I know we belong to the company and all and you won't be working for them anymore and you might not want to do anything to do with us either."

He rolled his eyes, "don't be silly Jess, you know you lot are welcome where ever I am," they were the children he never had the chance to have, not that he would ever say that. Some secrets were best kept hidden; the company wouldn't have appreciated his words at all.

He stopped then and looked at her properly, she looked tired and worn out. He seriously hoped that she wasn't getting his affliction of having a conscience, not at her age. She didn't need that at all.

"What's wrong?"

She dipped her head, the rest were well out of earshot but he could still see her reservations, she looked over to Ryan and then back to him, "you fancy a walk?"

He nodded and followed her out, he hadn't had the chance to see her for a about a week now, not since they reported in for the last assignment. She glanced behind her quickly as they made their way out into the training grounds. They kept themselves to the sidelines as the rest of the younger recruits were put through their paces.

"So?"

"I've been dreaming and when I say that I don't mean fluffy dreams with bunny rabbits and rainbows… this scares me and it comes back every night," her eyes pleadingly met his, "I don't know what to do.

It feels…"she took a gulp of air and rubbed her eyes in an oddly childish gesture. "It feels more realer than when I'm awake, the touch of the metal door… the way the light hurts my eyes. I think someone's hacking into my head."

"Have you told Ryan?"

She shook her head, "but I'm sure he's catching onto it, he doesn't miss a thing."

He looked at her strained face and her tired eyes "go to the company's doctor or even the healer."

She shook her head, "I'm the only human here, I don't need to give them an excuse so they can find something wrong with me and put me down."

Shocked at her words he gawped at her, "they wouldn't do that; you're speaking about it like taking a dog to the vets. They would basically look at your lifestyle and maybe get you to talk to the counsellor."

"No way," was all she got out, "I don't need them to know what's going on inside my head, it'd be just another way to definitely prove that I'm not suitable for this job," her pleading eyes yet again met his, "I need another way."

He paused mid step and looked at the trainees in the squad, that had been Jess and her batch one time. He had fought so hard and argued that she was good as the rest and in time he had proven them all wrong, yet in the eleven years she had been here she was still the only human that had ever been trained.

He looked back at her, not wanting to lose the one thing he had worked so hard for over the years, "I know a woman you can see, a witch. Meet me tomorrow outside the compound and I'll take you to meet her and leave you in her care. She'll do what she can for you."

She was about to nod then stopped, "I can't," she managed to stutter out, "I have to oversee Ryan's meeting with his brother tomorrow." Ryan and his brother weren't a secret in the company; once he had come back from his first time meeting him he had automatically gone to administration and asked if the future meeting was ok. His loyalty to them already been shown they readily agreed, he was now the envy of their whole batch.

Kyle looked back to the trainees, a ten year old boy crying on the floor caught his attention, he couldn't help grimace as a trainer was menacingly walking towards him, as quick as a flash Jess went up to the boy and picked him up and started rubbing the dirt from his clothes. With Kyle walking up behind her the trainer knowing his station kept where he was and kept a wary eye on the pair.

Jess knelt down, eye-to-eye with the boy, "how long have you been here?"

" Just under a year," the statement seemed to say it all, the boy was scrawny and seemingly petrified. Dark brown eyes seemed to dominate a pale face; the short cut hair only seemed to highlight the deep bruise on the side of his face. Kyle automatically sensed the camaraderie that lay unspoken between all of the trainees.

"That's not so long, you shouldn't give up,"

Kyle stood behind her. Patiently waiting.

The boy rubbed the tears away from his eyes, "but it's hard and I want to go home."

Jess picked out some tissues from her pocket and handed them to him, "we all wanted to go home, but we have to accept we don't have a home," she looked around discreditably, "this place, this isn't our home." She tapped his head, "inside of here will have to be. I've survived eleven years here, you… you're a nightworlder, you can last so much longer than a human like me."

The boy sniffled and surprising straightened his shoulders, "I won't give up then."

"Good."

He looked at her before he headed off to return to his group that were running inside for lunch, "you're not just a human; you couldn't be to survive here."

She laughed, "what am I then?"

"You're just one of us, that's all," and the boy ran off then following the others.

She stood up and turned around back to Kyle, "sorry," she mumbled as they made their way back inside.

"Don't be, I'll pick you up in three days time outside your place at 1pm. Then we can go and see my witch friend."

She nodded and followed him inside the block again and upstairs back to the rest of her kind.

* * *

He stood outside of the main gates, following the slinking figure with his eye as Jess made her way into the forest that nestled around the small park. He gave her five minutes and took a deep breath as he made his way in and through the main entrance and down the paved pathway.

Ryan couldn't help but notice his brother straight away, he was wandering around the bench near the pond, sitting down on it then deciding not to as he paced nervously around it. He had never wanted this day to come, Ryan had hid so well from everything over the years and now, well now he had to face something he'd rather not.

Three years ago he would have been naïve enough to survive through this, but he had unfortunately become wiser since then and knowing now that facing his brother meant that he couldn't ignore the facts that what he did was normal anymore.

He was stood behind Danny for about thirty seconds before he noticed him and when he did he seemed to jump out of his skin. Ryan just lightly smiled and sat beside him on the moss-covered bench. He had never really thought about the consequences of coming this far, maybe many of their victims were right, maybe they had grown into monsters. But there was nothing else they could have been, it was what they were now or one of those crimson stains on the training ground.

His brother met his eyes and Ryan sat back waiting for those crucial accusing words, but none came and all Danny did was lean forward and stare out into the murky water of the duck pond.

"I told Mum and Dad this morning that I found you."

Ryan let out a dry laugh, "and let me guess, you didn't tell them my profession did you?"

His brother still didn't meet his eyes, "no, but they will have to be told. I just told them the basics about you being kidnapped and used in a secret organisation."

"And they actually believed you?"

When Danny did look towards him he could see the desperately hidden disgust there and amazingly enough Ryan found himself not being able to tear away his gaze.

"Yes they did, they've never given up looking for you. Even after all this time."

"They should have, so when do you expect me to go and reveal myself to our tearful family?" he should have walked away when Danny first made his announcement, how could he even think that he could go back and face them?

"Today."

Ryan should have been surprised but he wasn't, he stood up and looked down on his brother and realised he'd never get to be his equal, no matter how much they said killing was ingrained in the nightworlder's blood, Danny with his perfect morals would never see through that.

He raked his teeth on his bottom lip and looked out into the trees, he couldn't see Jess out there but he knew she was there; he looked back down on his brother. "Sure, but if we do this, we do this on my terms."

He could see Danny reluctantly nod, Ryan smiled and looked around the park to Danny's friends who no matter how they tried couldn't escape his gaze, but they hadn't been trained for this type of work.

"First you call your little friends over here. Really Danny? You don't think I wouldn't have noticed them do you?" Ryan shook his head as Danny stood up beside him and looked around the park forlornly, knowing he had lost, with a wolf whistle they all let go of their pretences and wandered over.

He looked back to his brother, "seeing that you're no longer getting people to watch me, I'll call a truce and call in my reinforcement."

Danny mouth visible dropped, "my friends were only looking out for me, what do you mean?"

His laugh was colder than he truly meant it to be and he opened his mind and searched the surrounding trees and like a little firefly, Jess nestled within some treetops. Sweet pea, games up. I think you should be sociable

Within a flash a figure emerged out of the trees surrounding them and with her normal tact she successfully unnerved all the night worlders surrounding him.

Her gait was predatory and confident, with her normal beaming smile she settled beside him. Leaning against him, he knew her tactics in doing so. It was a warning to those around them, warning that each of them were dangerous and together even more so. It was also for the comfort that she would let no other person know of, knowing that he was close, that like so many times over the years if they were faced with something they were more than likely to get out of it.

"My brother here," Ryan explained looking cuttingly over to him, "he's told my parents about the fact I'm still alive and that he's bringing me to meet them today."

Incontrollable Jess' eyebrows shot up, what had Danny thought, did he even think of the consequences? "So what are you going to do?"

"There's nothing I can do, I can't go and disappoint my folks now can I?" but his eyes said something different to her, saying there was no way in hell that he really wanted to go. "But seeing that he sprung this surprise on me, I have the right to do the same I think."

He wanted her to go with him, she could tell and it gnawed at her, but of course she could only say yes, to reject the his plea would crush him.

"Jess is going with me," his eyes met hers, pleading in a way so no other would see it, "if it's alright with her of course."

She smiled, "anything for my sweetie," she said endearingly and linked her arms with his, "so when are we heading off then?"

His brother finally piped up, "I guess now would be a good time, we've got enough room in our cars for you to come along," he was definitely not happy about this but Ryan didn't care. Dan had played a nasty trick with this and deserved nothing but scorn.

"I think not," Ryan looked his brother squarely in the eye; "we'll follow you in my car, guessing they haven't moved I can meet you outside the front."

Dan stiffly nodded, "deal," not even looking Ryan's way Dan made his way out of the park, his posse trailing behind him, cautiously looking behind them to the still duo. Once they were out of hearing distance Jess turned to him.

"Are you sure about this?"

He slowly started walking to the main entrance, with her arms still linked with his she patiently waited for his answer.

He finally shook his head, "oh course not, but it is done now and all I can do is face the circumstances."

"He should be the one who should face them," she spat more bitterly than she realised.

He leant over to her and kissed her hair, "wish me luck my munchkin."

"You don't need luck," she said as they found themselves standing outside the Company car, you need a miracle; she didn't say this to him. He had enough to deal with then her lack of faith, he had a family to subdue.

The car drive was unsurprisingly silent, a resigned thought resurfaced and Jess couldn't help but shudder at it. This would never happen with her family, she had decided a long time ago that there was no going back. The first words that Kyle had uttered to her such a long time ago were true, she could never tell her parents what she had turned into, best to think she had been simply taken and been done away with like all the other unfound children. Best for them to think she was somewhere better now than making her way gradually to Hell.

The car screeched to a stop and she saw the unconvincing menacing look of Danny leaning against the back of his car. His friends were nowhere to be seen and the look of grudging acceptance had plastered itself on his face.

She followed Ryan out of the car and suddenly stalled, what the hell was he thinking? She couldn't do this, this was his task and his alone, what did he expect her to do? Back him up when he tried to build his case that killing people as a living wasn't all that bad, that they only did it because they were told to?

He could see it in her face and she knew it, why would he make her do this, it wasn't like she was tortured enough these days with lack of sleep. But he needed her, maybe the first time for a real while, he really needed her; that made her walk on and her resolve was given a little boost as his hand slipped into hers.

But something wasn't right; later on Jess had gone over those seconds as they made it into the house as Danny walked on behind them. She should have known, Ryan should at least have seen something was up. But they hadn't and they had been fooled, they had been duped by amateurs.

The house was too quiet when they entered, a TV blared from a back room somewhere. That must have been the thing that had distracted them, for it was then that the most abstract thing had happened.

Danny had pushed them both from behind and they had tumbled into the middle of the room. From her fallen position Jess was trying to find just the right profanity to tell him what a clumsy idiot he was when an unbelievable big metal cage fell down on them. Shock was the only word Jess could call her condition, Ryan didn't look that good either. It was about that time that he had started shouting exactly what a deceitful lowlife Danny was. Jess turned around to him in her crouching position, the cage was wide but it was short and there was no way they'd be able to stand and at least try to get someway out of this.

The looming shadow of Danny came up to the cage, just far enough away so none of them could reach out and break some necessary bones.

"We're doing this to help you," was his only excuse.

Jess scoffed and wondered why the hell she had come here in the first place, "ooh, you're going to be so dead."

He crouched down himself and peered at her in the cage, "if you weren't locked in that cage I would believe you but this is for your own good," he looked aside of her to Ryan, "for both of you."

She snapped her hand to her shoulder and blinked frantically, drawing the thing out that she was sure that had just bit her. A small dart nestled within her hand; she carefully passed it to Ryan, "the bastards," was all she could mutter as she collapsed on her side.

Ryan scrambled for her pulse, "if you've hurt her!" was all he could seem to roar.

Danny shook his heads, still in his crouching pose, "no, only asleep. Exactly as you will be any minute," it's unbelievable how much a needle can sting when it's jabbed in your side and emptied. His eyelids drooped and the only thought he could beckon was that they must have used a heavy dosage to get him to react like this; he felt a black haze cover his vision and collapsed next to Jess.

Danny stood up and motioned the cage to be taken up; he had gotten the first part out of the way. All he had to do now was deliver them and hope that the corporation of his could do what they promised.

* * *


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Jessica had many critical thoughts over her life with the Company. But none ever like this one. She was in a concrete cell, no windows and one big reinforced metal door, Ryan still lay unconscious next to her, she had shifted his head on her lap as she softly talked to him.

What they must have given him had to be strong, strong in a way that afterwards that even a rhinoceros would think twice about doing it again. It would take him a while to wake up and with each second that passed by Jess' head throbbed. She was dehydrated and her body had used most of her energy to filter the drug through her system.

She was stuck, stuck in a stupid cell, where the wall was too hard against her back and the ground too cold against her legs. For the third time in the last hour someone slid open the metal hole in the door and peered through, she daintily waved at them and stared at the eyes that looked through at her, after a minute the metal hole closed again and she was left alone.

Virtually anyway, Ryan wouldn't be in his best state for a while yet and it wasn't likely that any magical secret doors would appear in the walls so they could escape and Jess could kill Ryan's brother.

She had always had this stupid thought in her head that family were meant to be trustworthy and loving, not that they were going to sedate you at the first chance and throw you in a stupid cold cell, had they forgotten she was human or something?

She deeply doubted that, Ryan mumbled something and she stroked his hair, "ssssshhhh," she muttered, "we'll be alright."

She wished she could believe herself, maybe their luck had run out. The best team in their year and Death was waiting around the corner, his bony fingers tapping patiently on his scythe; she suddenly wanted to be back eleven years. Wishing she had never spoken to Kyle in the park that time.

Ryan groaned and rubbed his eyes; so sleeping beauty had woken up. Hopefully he could at least figure a way for them to get out. His hand came to his head where her hand rested, he turned to rest on his back and his blurry eyes met hers, he tried to smile but faltered as he rubbed his head and closed his eyes again. Ryan didn't look so good and it worried her, he was the best out of the both of them and she needed all of him to at least think of something.

* * *

An hour later, after a bit more groaning off Ryan and him taking a half an hour nap so he could sleep off the rest of the effect they both sat with their backs against the wall, staring at the slot where the peephole was located.

"So how many times do they check on us?"

Jess looked at him, "in the last two hours?" she shrugged, "round about every Fifthteen to twenty five minutes, it looks like they do it on a rotary system, seems that theirs only three of them, but I'm sure I've heard more."

Ryan nodded and stood up to peer at the door, he stopped and turned round, "there's a lot of spells done here, wards and things."

She nodded back, "I guessed, this place is nightworld. I figured Danny wouldn't drop us off any place else."

"Well, unless there's an easy time when we can overpower them, we're going to have to wait for the company's intervention."

Jess followed him with her eyes as he paced up and down, "I'm meant to meet Kyle tomorrow," she could see his look, the one that said why didn't she tell him that before, "hopefully he'll figure something's going on."

"Yeah hopefully he does."

* * *

Jess' laughter rang out as she lay flat on the floor, her head leant on Ryan's legs, "ok, my turn," she muttered, "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with," she paused for a moment and looked around the sparse cell, "D."

Ryan cleared his throat, "well let me see," a frown covered his face and Jess watched him, trying to conceal her giggles, "seeing the whole range of stuff it could be in here, I'd say… just on the off chance, that it's a… Door?"

She applauded him and mock surprise was on her face, "I'm just surprised out of all of this that you could have chosen that one."

He just shrugged, "lets just say its talent, ok different game. I went to the supermarket and I brought myself some arsenic," they had been in here for the last six hours, Jess had given up on the fact that she might ever be allowed to go to the toilet and had just laid down on the floor, reminding herself that there was a reason why she was crossing her legs.

Jess took over, "I went to the supermarket and brought myself some arsenic and a balloon."

Ryan raised his eyebrows at her, "sure, I went to the supermarket and brought some arsenic, a balloon and a canned hippo."

It was just over half an hour later when they were to Y when the door started opening, they stayed where they were and Jess carried on.

" I went to the supermarket and brought myself some arsenic, a balloon, a canned hippo, Dracula, Elmo, a Fried wig, grey puss, a Hopping leg, an invisible toad, a jigsaw, a kite," she took a deep breath. "A llama, miniature amoeba, a noose, an orange octopus, a purple singing cloud, a Queen album, a rabid lawyer, a stoned librarian, a tiny newt, an unique freak, a violin, X-Men and a yellow flashing nipple ring."

Ryan laughed, "You're so going to lose."

A cough erupted near the door, a large number of guards surrounded one very nicely suited lamia, they both looked up, ignoring how they were meant to be impressed. Ryan carried on, "I went to the market and I brought some arsenic…"

"Mr Leoman, Miss Thomson I would appreciate your attention."

Jess scoffed, "and I would appreciate a cell with a toilet, but well, we can't always get what we want."

The man raised his eyebrows; "if you feel like that, we'll move you to one as soon as possible, but first Mr Leoman your family want to see you."

A cruel smile curved over Ryan's lips, "yeah, send Danny in and see how long he'll survive alone with us."

The man stayed still, "I mean your other family; your mother and father have been waiting all afternoon."

Ryan stiffened, "tell them I don't appreciate their methods and next time they want to speak to me, picking up the phone would be easier."

"Mr Leoman they haven't set their eyes on you for the last eleven years, don't you think you should do your best for them?"

Ryan eyes burned, "no I don't. The next time they want to see me tell them to do it in person and maybe I'll comply."

The man nodded, "if you both stand up, my guards will move you across the hall where your lady friend can relieve herself."

They both followed, the cell was packed with guards and all of them carried horrible looking weapons that pointed at places that weren't really necessary to point there. The next cell was slightly larger and a mattress was placed in the corner, the toilet was on the other side of the room.

After they left Jess went up to it and picked up the toilet next to it, "see how conscientious they were. A whole roll of toilet paper to ourselves, how sweet is that?"

Ryan looked at her and sank down on the bare mattress, "we're screwed," he muttered under his breath.

Jess came up to him and sat down, "don't say that, you'll make me start believing it."

His eyes dropped, he was stuck in a horrible cell and there was no way out, how could he sound optimistic?

"Sorry Hon, I promise I won't slip again."

Her eyes silently pleaded to his, "Ry please just stick with me here. If you give up, I don't know how long I'll stay sane."

He nodded at her and patted her leg, "I'm not going anywhere."

"Good… Ryan, can you like turn around and put your fingers in your ears as I go to the toilet. I may have the best friendship in the world with you, but you watching me on the toilet is just freaky." He laughed, and lay flat down on the mattress, his eyes squeezed closed and his fingers in his ears as he hummed some random tune.

Jess smiled and set off to the toilet.

* * *

Kyle fingers thrummed in the top of his desk as Ryan's cell phone rang on and on, he had tried Jess' earlier and it was exactly the same, the phone just rang on and on and no one answered. He had passed on his fears onto the company so while he kept ringing them in desperation they were searching their homes; he had passed on the information about the meeting with Ryan's brother as well.

They had already knew this but the information unnerved them, they had few deserters but the ones who did flee were always found. He put the phone down and leant back in his chair, Jess wasn't at her apartment today, the day that was so important to her; he knew that the appointment wouldn't have been forgotten.

His phone rang, shrilling in his ears. He picked it up after the first ring and answered hesitantly, "Kyle Richards speaking."

"Kyle, it's me Don, I'm worried about Ryan…" he couldn't help but take an intake of breath, Don was another one from the batch from 1988. He sounded anxious, "we meet up every fortnight Kyle and we go bowling, he never loses Kyle and that's why he always turns up.

Something must have happened, the only other reason I can think of is that he was sent on an assignment on really short notice because normally when he is, he leaves me a message and last night. He wasn't there at all, not even at home."

"We're working on it Don," Kyle nerves were already wound down to the seams, he didn't need anymore things to worry about, "I had an appointment with Jess this morning and something's happened to her as well," a sudden thought came to his mind, "Don, you're not doing anything are you?"

"What do you want me to do?"

Don was a werewolf that was meticulously good as all of the others in his group, his partner was Cherry a very curvy and beautiful Lamia, they had found it better if they could partner up females with males. Two men doing assassinations, they had found out how too much testosterone in the workplace would lead to more violence then they needed.

"I need you to check up on an address for me, get Cherry to go with you as well," he suddenly fumbled with a file on his desk and opened Ryan's before him, his parents address lay there a couple of pages into it, " he went to meet his brother yesterday and nothing's been heard from him since, Jess said to me she was going with him as back up."

He could only admit now that it sounded weird, sure Jess and Ryan nearly did everything together but meeting up with your family was normally a private affair especially because how anti-human Ryan's family was. "Go to 105 Maple drive, it's at the edge of town," he could hear Don scribbling down the address, "its right near the Time Night Club," he supplied patiently.

Recognition filled Don's voice, the place was a local hangout for a lot of their recruits, "I'll get my map out, that place is pretty easy to navigate, I'll head off now and I'll call you within the hour."

"Don?"

"Yeah?"

"If you have to, to get a better look I mean. I give you permission to break in, subtly of course."

"Of course sir," humour filled his voice, "I'll go get Cherry and talk to you soon."

As Don put the phone down he could hear him call Cherry's name loudly, Kyle just sighed ad put the phone back down. Some of the old recruits had relationships with each other but Don and Cherry had shared their house since they had first moved out of the compound, their childish bickering seemed to have confirmed that their relationship could only be platonic.

Silence filled his office again and he leant back in his chair, a flustered Ivy Jenkins flung open the door. He had rung her over an hour ago to voice his concerns about Jess and Ryan; she had been recovering from Jet lag and had been asleep. He sighed and offered her a seat, Ivy was going to be his replacement after he retired, he had two more weeks to go and she had a hell of a lot more to learn.

He updated her on their progress, which didn't take him long, he told her where he had just sent Don and Cherry and she nodded at him. She didn't only have to take over the office side of his job but she also had to learn all of the recruits names, from the oldest ones which had been with the company since when it had first started fifty years ago to the ones that had been recruits last year, that was around more than a hundred assassins from amateurs to the long running professions.

He didn't feel at all sorry for her, she had applied for this position and it was her fault for all the work she had to learn, when he had walked her around the training grounds for the first time her eyes were wide and disbelieving. She had worked in the office area before hand, they only briefly met the fully trained recruits down there and that was when some of them wanted their paychecks early.

That was the first time she had seen the process of eliminating the weak ones, Kyle had thought, comparing to the norm she had handled it quite well, unknown to him, after she had seen a recruit dragged off and executed in the main squad she hadn't been able to sleep properly for over two weeks. Each person in that company had their own little morbid secrets and in Kyle's opinion they were best kept shut away, being alive seems much better than relieving his conscience.

"Mr Richards," she said weakly, she had just come back from Japan, their other training ground, a place that each of the recruits spent two years in. "Are you sure they haven't just deserted." He hadn't realised how severe his look had been until she backed up,

"Yes, I'm sure," he didn't like her words, it only scratched away at his own doubts, "they enjoy the work too much and Jess and well Jess had nowhere else to go."

"Yes," she stuttered, "I'm sorry."

He ignored her, something was going on and he wasn't going to stand here and take it. He stood up and stared down at Ivy. "I need a word with John Wards, I'd appreciate if you could go and fetch him from his office for me."

She nodded and left the room, he fell back down into his chair, he didn't need this and especially not at all the same time.

* * *

Jess sat on the mattress next to Ryan; her back leant against the hard concrete wall. Her eyes slowly started to droop, she hadn't slept since she was knocked unconscious and it was slowly creeping up on her. For the third time in the last half an hour her head dropped sideways to Ryan's shoulder.

She shook her head and sat herself up again, "sorry," she muttered. Ryan looked at her with tired eyes; the lack of sleep was effecting him as well. Dismissing all of his training he finally came to a conclusion, "why don't we just sleep?"

Jess looked at him in puzzlement, it was like counting all their losses and giving up, "I know we're tired but…"

"But what? Come on Jess it's not like they're going to come in here and start torturing us while we're napping. They want to brainwash us full stop, why do you think they started involving my family. They're using our emotions as leverage and evidently they underestimated us," he smiled lightly at her, "it's better that we face them with all our wits then half asleep. They're going to be going psychological then anything else."

He was always the smartest one and relenting Jess lay herself down on the mattress and heaved a heavy sigh, Ryan lay down beside her pushing back the waves of her unmanageable hair back from her face.

"Don't worry," was all he could soothe her, "I'm never going to let anyone hurt you."

She shuffled near to him and tucked herself up to him, her head just below his own. His words unusually struck a chord in her heart and this was all she could do to stop herself from throwing herself at Ryan for just some form of comfort, she restrained herself and tightened her grip on the front of his shirt as she breathed in his comforting scent, her Ryan who always seemed to say the right words.

She laid there for seemingly eons as Ryan stayed silent and stroked her hair, as his hand stilled and his breathing became shallower she pushed her head up and leant her head at the same level as his.

She had forgotten how much over the last few years, how beautiful he was, seeing him everyday had dulled her senses of it but now, when she was alone with him she suddenly wished they were different people.

He had changed over the years, from being a boy he had turned into a man and had started to make his way into every girl's fantasy but for so long she hadn't seen him like that, just her Ryan, just her protector, her best friend.

If anything happened to him, she doubted she'd be able to live on. It would ache so much, she knew that much now. For when they were apart she missed him like anything.

He suddenly heaved a heavy sigh and settled back to sleep, her shaky hand came up to smooth out his hair. It was like silk underneath her fingers and she delighted in it, when had all these emotions appeared?

Maybe it was captivity; maybe she had always been like this. She shook her head and rolled over, her back to him; her eyes trying to keep align with the cell door.

But her body overruled her as she felt her heavy eyelids droop and Ryan's warms body curve against her back as his arm came around her waist and drew her near.

Maybe sleep was best after all, her mind mulled over as her eyes finally closed and she unconsciously rolled back around and snuggled closer to Ryan.

* * *


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

It was an understatement to say that Kyle had just had a hectic day because it was still partially in progress; the phone call from Don was an hour later than he expected. He sat himself down, waiting for the dire news. Don's voice was strained though and certainly baffled.

"So what was there?"

Don paused for a second, "well there was no one there so we broke our way in, to find pretty much a deserted house, there was some furniture piled up in the garage and a random television in the kitchen but you want to know the weirdest thing?"

Kyle was getting impatient already, "today would be nice Don."

"Oh sorry, well me and Cherry were confounded, there was this massive metal cage in the middle of the front room and when I say massive it was huge and Ryan and Jess had definitely been there, Kyle I could smell them."

Kyle didn't doubt him, werewolves might be ridiculed in many nightworld circles but they knew what they were talking about.

"Tomorrow morning then, I'll clear this with the others but I want you to watch someone for me, you'll need to find him first though."

"Who do you need me to sniff out then?"

He already noticed the irony of the statement but in his present mood he just nonchalantly passed it by, "Daniel Leoman. Ryan's older brother, I'll ring the offices downstairs about it tonight to do a background check and first thing tomorrow morning you two come in and see me and I'll hand it over, we need to recover Ryan and Jess as soon as possible before whoever's got them gets their greasy little claws into them."

"Yes sir," Don's voice was suddenly grim, "we'll do whatever's in our power."

"I know you all will, but now go home and get some sleep, I have a feeling tomorrow will be a busy day."

"Sure, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah."

And then the phone went dead, Kyle couldn't suppress his yawn, he rubbed his eyes and stretched his legs as he made his way out of the room and turned the light off behind him. Yes, today was definitely hectic and he had an even worse feeling that tomorrow was not going to be any better.

* * *

Waking up, even though it was slightly surreal was nice. Whenever Ryan had slept over in the past he had always been the first one to wake and was normally watching the television in the other room by the time she opened her blurry eyes. But now he didn't really have that choice and his breathing seemed to hum in her ears, making her slightly at ease, she always knew everything was going to be alright when he was around.

She couldn't suppress her yawn and Ryan's eye's automatically fluttered open, he stretched out, his arms above his head and his legs straight down, she had never seen him do such a feline action. She expected purring next but declined from comment, Ryan wasn't always that open to her cat jokes, mostly annoyed to be true.

"Sleep well?"

Jess just nodded, lying as always. She had that stupid dream again, the one with walking down corridors and finally to a metal door, a door that she never got to see the other side of. It had woken her with a start two times since she went asleep by his side and as the days went on, the easier it was getting to hide her flustered state whenever she emerged from it.

She snuggled into his side and tried to close her eyes again, he was warm, the only welcoming thing in his concrete cell of theirs. She could feel his fingers drift through her hair and she suddenly wanted to scream out in frustration, why wasn't he allowed to be hers?

"You alright?"

She didn't want to lift her head to answer him, because then she would have to look in those silvery eyes of his and she knew he would be able to tell. He always had and she didn't know what to do if he found out her desires, they had never really gone into their emotional feelings before.

"Not exactly," she mumbled into his chest.

He laughed, "that doesn't sound that precise," he shifted back a bit so he could see her face, she demurely looked up at him, "now tell Uncle Ryan what's wrong?" he said to her mockingly.

She suddenly wanted to dig herself a really big hole and bury herself in it, "I promise you my liege; it's nothing to worry about." His face suddenly dropped, the cheerfulness gone. He shuffled himself down, laying now at the same level, his head in front of hers, "Jess, please tell me what's wrong?"

Tell him what's wrong? Now how many complications would that bring about, so she decided that maybe she shouldn't even try. His hands came to her face, fingers smoothing away wild hair. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't so comfortable with who he was. Ryan communicated most of the time from touch, all the way from trying to comfort her, to him trying to win on an argument the easy way by always being able to find her ticklish bit.

"Jess, please tell me."

But what would she tell him? She pondered over it for a few seconds and finally came to a decision; she sat herself up. "You remember that game we used to play? That one where you would see how long it would take you to find out what I was hiding in my mind game?"

He couldn't hide his smile, he had found out a lot about Jess that way. But that was when they were kids and the game wasn't that fun anymore, especially when he knew she had secrets that she wasn't so willing to share. "Yeah of course I do."

"Well, I…" she was faulting again and she had no other option, "I have something that I know I have to tell you but I can't. It's…" she stuttered again and tried not think of the consequences, "I know you have to know this but I can't tell you, it's something I can't bring to words."

He nodded stiffly, "are you sure about this?"

She knew the circumstance she was in, he had a chance of finding out more than she wanted, but the one big thing she wanted him to know seemed to over shadow all of the rest. "I trust you."

"Trusting me has nothing to do with it Jess, are you sure this the only way you can tell me?"

"I'm not very good with words."

He shook his head, "and I'm even worse at controlling what I see… some things are best said out loud."

So the easiest option was out of the window, she had always thought honesty was the best thing but look what happened to Ryan. He was honest to his own brother and they ended up in a solid concrete cell, but they were different and remembering the dream she reminded herself that some mysteries were best to keep secret.

"You remember the time I went with Gunner and everything went really weird and I broke up with him, I said it was because of me and not you."

He nodded at her, too understanding in her opinion, where was the sudden distraction to get her out of this?

"Well I lied, it was about you, it was really about us and this is as well. Ryan you're my best friend and…" And she could see him waiting for her sudden announcement, all his attention wrapped around her.

She took a deep breath and did the only thing she could, "and well I don't have best friends feelings for you, I kind of have more than best friend feelings for you and I know I shouldn't and I know I'm ruining everything by telling you but lately it's been getting worse and maybe it's being in this cell really close to you where I can't ignore it but well that's it."

He sat back, his eyes wide with a baffled expression on his face. Slowly a smile curved and gasping laughter erupted from his throat. He had been waiting weeks to tell her the exact same thing, torturing himself over it and now he didn't have to do anything but admit to the same.

"Ryan, I would appreciate something apart from hysterical laughter."

He shook his head and looked at her and in a move he knew would confound her, he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her close; moving the other hand gently to the side of her face and into her hair. His lips met hers, feeling the shiver going down her body, he held onto her tighter.

* * *

Dan shivered as he sat in his apartment bedroom, he was uneasy and had every reason to be. He had messed around with very powerful people and even though trying to get Ryan to change felt like the right thing, it didn't mean that it was a safe thing, especially for Dan and his very precious life.

He had only learnt one lesson in his life and that was always to cover his own back first even before he checked out for everyone else's. But he hadn't realised what he had been getting himself into this time and had realised it way too late, it was far too late now to hand Ryan and the girl over and apologise as he scampered away.

His parents were involved now and all he could do was cringe as they enthusiastically chatted away about having their son back; he had kept his thoughts back. What could he say? That they had lost the real Ryan a long while ago, that he wasn't the same little boy that was grabbed on his way back from school. They wouldn't accept that, they had glazed over their reactions when they found out what Ryan had been doing.

They had simply said that he had been forced into it, but they hadn't seen the videos and looked through the files. Ryan was one of the worse out of his year's recruits, him and the girl. Worse of all the files had classed him perfectly sane, how could he be? Dan had seen the police photos of the aftermath of what they left. He hadn't kept his stomach down long after that.

A knock sounded at the door and he ignored it, he had lived here for many reasons and one of them was because it was so cheap, the residents were loud and half the building seemed to be falling apart but he had running water and no one bothered him, except to complain from time to time.

His friends always rang before they dropped by and it was always a flying visit, he didn't blame them and would always grab his jacket and keys and be out the door straight after them, so the knock could only be the neighbours, this time he didn't have any idea why, so he let them knock on.

He shot up and headed for his bedroom, his first instinct was to go to his suitcase under his bed. Throwing it on his bed he threw all the clothes he could fit in there, grabbing an armful out of each drawer. The banging on his door increased, he ignored it as the music from upstairs grew louder, the bass thumping through his ceiling.

Shutting the suitcase he made his way back into his front room, picking up the phone trying to think of the first person he would feel safe with. He swung around as the door flew off its hinges and smacked hard against the wall just beside him, a very sinister guy loomed in his doorway.

All Dan could do was gulp as he made his way in, too afraid to even notice the pretty girl making her way in afterwards through the broken door frame.

* * *

Jess couldn't keep herself from smiling as Ryan absently trailed his fingers up and down the inside of her arm, it made all the sensitive skin tingle and since they had landed in this heap, she could at least glaze over where they were.

The door swung open and they both forget their momentary involvement and both jumped up as a man and a woman in their early forties walked into the room. Ryan stood frozen, a grim look on his face. The woman's bottom lip trembled as she laid her eyes on Ryan and bustled towards him as she bundled him into her arms.

Ryan stood frozen, still as she wept into his shoulder and the man stood behind her with an odd look of calm on his face. Jess had already guessed who they were and she reasoned Ryan looked more like his Father than his mother who was now clutching at him. Ryan expertly detangled himself and took a step back, a look on his face as if he had just been hugged by complete strangers, even though the look might have fooled his parents, Jess had caught on to his shock.

She could see his fingers trembling as he backed away, Jess was now sure that this was the most uncomfortable position she had ever been in.

The man looked at Jess, the same silvery eyes and the same face structure yet black haired framed his face. She suddenly felt a million pinpricks stab at the front of her head; she winced and moved herself behind Ryan. She knew her safest chances were with him, he had a couple of angry parents and the best guess was that they were going to blame it on the closest person they could, the closest person to the company except Ryan of course.

She didn't feel like being the punching bag. Ryan finally broke the deafening silence, "Jessica, these are my parents. Lucy and Bram Leoman," he looked over to them, "Mum, Dad," he said slowly, gaining their attention away from Jessica and onto him, "this is Jessica Thomson, my girlfriend."

Jess hid the shock well, sure they had just announced their newfound love but she didn't know they were going to move into that direction, or maybe he was just saying it to keep them off her back. She was suddenly sure she just saw Ryan's Mum gulp, in time she gradually made herself smile at Jess. Jess reminded herself that she wasn't in the compound anymore and all she was to these two was just a human, she must stick out here like a sore thumb.

Bram, Ryan's Father shut the cell door behind him and leant himself against it. Jess couldn't help noticing how his gaze kept shifting to Ryan, still disbelieving that he was still here. Ryan's Mother though stood speechless, unable to do anything except stare at her son; Ryan

had gotten his ash blond hair from her, but her eyes were like Danny's a golden hue that grabbed Jess attention, how could they get away unnoticed and without suspicions in the human world?

"How long have you two known each other?" it was Ryan's Father who was speaking, his voice shook a nerve in Jess's body, she knew she shouldn't feel so uneasy but Ryan wasn't helping her at all so it was the only option she had.

"Eleven years, she was taken like me. Like all of the people in my group that I work with, why are you here?" Jess gulped, how could Ryan so guilelessly talk to him like that. Bram's eyes seemed to scorch into his son's.

"We've waited eleven years, through the tears, the anger, the hopelessness and you have the audacity to ask me that question? I want my son back, why do you think we're here?"

Ryan looked down, a battle being fought in his mind, "I'm not that little boy anymore," he finally managed to blurt out, "I had to change, eleven years is a very long time."

"Don't you think we know that?" his Father drew near now only a pace away from Ryan, his hand came up and in an odd moment of closeness, he reached out and touched the side of his son's face, "you've grown up so much, but you are still our son."

"I'm your son who've been trained to kill people, did Danny inform you of that?"

His Father's hand dropped down, "yes he did."

"And?" desperation was in his face, Ryan wanted to know, wanted to know if he was going to be detested or simply forgiven.

"It's something we'll have to work on," the moment was gone and his Father took a couple of steps back and took his place beside his wife.

"So keeping me locked up like this is you working on it," Ryan's anger was visible churning up inside of him, "you know that's something I don't appreciate, I actually enjoy my work and you doing this will only make me start resenting you."

It was his Mother's time to preach, "How can you enjoy what you do? You slaughter people."

"Like you and Dad haven't done to some humans in your time?" Ryan couldn't keep a scoff down, "don't shake your head at me, I saw the way you looked at Jess and I remember the things you tried to ingrain into me when I was a kid, Jess is vermin remember. You've killed your type of vermin; it's just that I'm less prejudice, I kill no matter the species."

His Mum gulped, "so is that why you flaunt yourself around with her?"

Jess could guess she was the matter of the conversation now. "I flaunt myself around with her because I'm in love with her and she's someone who's kept me together and given me the will to live for the last eleven years. I don't think I can ever say the same thing about you two."

His father's eyes were cool, "why do you do this? You know you're hurting us more than is needed."

"I'm throwing away any façade of pretences now, so you know what I am. I'm a killer and I don't care, I'm not your little boy and you can't change me. I will always love you two, never doubt that but I can not change into what you want me to be."

His Father nodded and took his wife by the arm and knocked hard on the cell door, after a few seconds it opened with a few guards in the entrance. He looked at Ryan, "we need to think and so do you, we can make your life better and we can take you away from here. Or if not you can stay here until they convince you otherwise."

Ryan said nothing as the cell door was closed and he sat himself down on the bare mattress on the floor, Jess went to sit beside him. Jess knew there was nothing to say, but she had an odd giddy feeling in her stomach and turned to him, she nudged him playfully.

"You said I was your girlfriend and that you _loved_ me," she couldn't help keep the smile off her face, "who's in love with me?" she mockingly sang, "Ryan is, Ryan is!"

He couldn't keep the smile off his face either as he momentarily looked away; he shook his head as he turned back to her. Jess was nothing but right and put his arm around her shoulders, being as close as he could without showing his distress, he finally leant his head back against the wall and let out a long sigh.

* * *

Dan was pinned against the balcony wall, he suddenly wished he didn't live so high as the very intimidating werewolf interrogated him, the vampire girl behind him leisurely leant back against the opposite wall, flipping up and down an obviously expensive, yet deadly silver steak.

"Now tell me what I want to know and I promise I won't hurt you… that much," with those words he pulled out a very thin long pointed silver needle out of his jacket, a laconic smile twisted on his face, "now are you going to be a good boy?"

Too afraid to disagree Dan nodded at the dark haired boy in front of him, the werewolf kept an unnerving coldness about him and unlike his counterparts Dan was smart enough to know when he was outclassed, werewolf or not, this guy was from the same place as his brother and he had seen enough evidence to make him fear for his life many times over when dealing with these people.

The red haired girl came up behind the werewolf and languidly draped her arms over his shoulders, she looked intently at Dan, "you can tell they're brothers," she said softly, as soon as she acknowledged him she suddenly disregarded him as she whispered something into her associates ear and retook her place against the balcony's railings.

"Now, to make sure you don't go warn anyone, we'll be taking you back with us and while we're doing that you can tell us where Ryan and Jessica are."

At that moment Dan felt it was best for him to stay silent, he may be a pushover in many people's eyes but he still had his main advantage, being Ryan's brother was one of them.

"Or," the werewolf directed pushing Dan to the door, the silver weapon digging into his back, it now seemed that he had tagged on somehow to Dan's line of thought, "I can simply impale you with our nifty little toys and leave you to bleed to death on the floor. Ryan would never know, especially because we'll never have a chance to find him."

Dan had a suddenly horrible feeling that the werewolf wasn't lying; he tried not to choke on his fear as he spluttered out his words, "I can tell you okay? I can tell you. Just don't kill me and I can tell you where they are and how to get to them."

The werewolf laughed and turned to his partner, "now didn't I tell you my dear Cherry, diplomacy always works."

The girl just shook her head and trailed behind him, "especially in the way you do it, you know if we weren't doing this I'd feel sorry for your fellow man if you ever got into politics."

"Politics!" the werewolf scoffed, "to get into that all I'd need is a check-book and surprisingly enough I do have a small amount of morals that I live by."

"And amen to that," she muttered as she picked up the door after the werewolf made his way out of the room with Dan and put it back into place, "now lets see what we can do."

* * *


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Ten minutes after Daniel Leoman has set foot on the compound, blind folded and tied up, Kyle had already organised the salvage team and half of the assassins in the compound were all waiting in the parking lot waiting for the order to go.

It was easy to get the information off the boy, as soon as the blindfold was taken off and he was shown all the lovely silver weaponry they had amassed over the years he had broken with breathtaking speed and had told them the place and even what part of the building they were kept in.

They wouldn't hurt the boy; let him go after he spent some time on his own fearing their next actions. But the boy would be gone before Ryan and Jess were back, he felt it was best for all of them that were kept apart, Kyle had an unpleasant feeling that Ryan wouldn't be too receptive to see his brother anyway.

Taking the steps two at a time down the stairs, Kyle went to tell the team himself. It would be easy but from what he heard their duo weren't the only ones being kept in there, a handful of some nightworld misfits were being held there too, that was something his people would need to know.

When he got out into the grounds the cool evening wind hit him, his unease settled back down into his stomach. The company's assassins always did well by the cover of night and this should be no different, one of the older assassins made his way towards him as Kyle made his way to the rest.

Hira stood in front of him, a Lamia in his fifties now but he still had the alluring look of his early twenties, Kyle just tiredly smiled, "we have the location," he handed out the papers with the coordinates and the building plan, the others were now all crowded around him.

"So what do we do if we run into some other prisoners?" Kyle turned to Gunner; he was at the end of the circle alert and keyed up as the rest.

"The best way is to cause as much havoc as possible, runaway prisoner could be the best cover, especially if one of them is hurt," Kyle looked around to the rest.

Hira was the next to speak, "If one of them isn't alive should we still bring back the body?"

Kyle nodded slowly, "yes," Hira was voicing all of their concerns and even though Hira was one of the most dangerous in the company and more experienced than Jess's batch he still had the protectiveness that all the others seemed to have towards her.

They were all one big family almost, the older recruits looking out for the younger ones knowing what they had to fight through to get where they were. It was only the fresh recruits who would sneer at Jess and that would only be for a while, Jess was one of them and they treated her with the respect and love that she deserved, respect they didn't even show to the any other humans that worked for the company day in, day out.

"Well, report when you get out and to a safe location, we need our people back. I'm not even thinking of recording the death toll in this assignment, this is off the records so anything goes," he looked at them seriously, "but that doesn't mean you can be lax and grab any unwanted attention, you get me?"

A few mutters chorused from around the fifty or so assassins and they slowly dissembled as they made their way to their different vehicles and all sped off down the same road.

Kyle sighed and shook his head and made his way back into the building, unwanted attention didn't normally matter anyway, the human public were pretty stupid these days, why would they even think it was something like their Company when they could easily blame it on the government in a conspiracy theory or on the local human gangsters who were all unknowingly controlled by factions of the nightworld anyway.

Irony ran everywhere in today's world.

* * *

It was an hour after sun down that the lights in the cell blacked out and from the commotion outside of the door it was happening all over the building. Within seconds, Jessica and Ryan had jumped up and listened out for the uproar behind their cell door anxiously.

Ryan being what he was, meant he could easily see through the shadows while Jess strained her eyes to get used to the darkness as the shapes slowly came into focus. A hum entered Ryan's ears and a couple of minutes later low voltage back up lights flicked on, outside the cell door though the noises increased.

Jess took her position beside Ryan. Both their body's tense and alert; their eyes didn't leave the door.

The door swung open and an overly enthusiastic Gunner stood in the doorway, "Anyone order assassins?" he grinned, Mia stood beside him with a large array of the other company's assassins around him.

"What you doing here?" Jess was never the less amazed, they had certainly be blessed.

"We're saving you, now Ryan you'll go with me, Don, Cherry, Mike and Zareh," he looked at Jess and winked at her, charm oozing out of him as usual, "and you sweet pea will go with Mia, Hira, Lalia and Nic and we'll separate," noticing Ryan's uneasiness, Hira squeezed his way through the others and went to stand beside Jess.

"I promise you Ry, I'll make sure we all have a celebratory get together when we're back at the compound but now all we need to do is disperse and confuse them as much as possible, we've done everything we can, they're running after their other prisoner's right now," Hira linked his arm with Jess's, "now, we'll see you later."

Ryan stiffly nodded and watched him lead Jess out of the room and with Jess in the middle they made their way down the long corridor. With a look at Gunner, Ryan just sighed, "Well what are we waiting here for?" he muttered as he made his way out.

The corridors were long and a lot of them were without lighting at all, having no idea how big the building was Jess anxiously followed them, corridor after corridor. A reinforced metal door stood in their way, from what she could see, it had many unlocked bolts on it and now stood slightly ajar.

Seeing her look Hira took it upon himself to explain, "from the building plan they have two secured areas, the one you were kept in and this one, we had to make our way through this lot to get to you, we met Gunner and the rest in the middle, near your cell."

Jess just nodded at him and followed Mia in as she gingerly opened it and peered into the darkened corridor, with a simple hand signal she motioned the others in behind her. Within a couple of minutes walking down the blackened corridors, Jess suddenly had a suddenly feeling of déjà vu. She stopped dead still as a flickering light entered the corner of her eye, "oh no," was all she could mutter.

Hira bumped into the back of her and made his way around her, "what is it?" his voice was urgent, he wanted to get out of here as fast as the others.

Jess turned to Mia knowing she would understand, "you know that spooky dream I told you I kept on having."

Mia just nodded, aware she was only a selected few who knew.

"Well this is it," she moved a few more paces forwards, making her way around the corner and to the start of the corridor with the flickering lights. "This is exactly it, at the end of this corridor there's that door."

Hira's voice echoed through the darkened space, "Hon, all these cells are empty, whatever you saw isn't there anymore. I promise you, I let the guy out myself from that cell, he wasn't in a pretty state but he was way too eager to leave like the rest. Now we have to leave."

She didn't stop him taking her arm and pulling her towards the exit, her eyes forlornly kept line with the flickering lights until they dimmed out of view, within minutes they were running up a steep staircase and up into an empty warehouse, a lot of the windows were broken and her feet crunched on broken glass as she made her way out.

A cold blast of wind hit her face, Hira flipped open his cell phone and within seconds a black van pulled up, piling themselves into the back they headed out of that place at full blast. Jess settled back, all her friends and associates around her and strangely enough she didn't feel anymore at ease, she wanted to be back in the company compound where she knew no one could get her and that she could once again be safe.

* * *

Kyle sat cold and uneasy as he watched Jess and Ryan sit in the examination rooms. They both sat there anxiously, occasional glances being exchanged, their clothing had been confiscated; it would be examined and then most likely incinerated. The company didn't take any types of risks, something Kyle had once been proud of, but now in his drawing days of his departure he had his own extra playing card up his sleeve.

They both sat there in the dull green of the training uniforms, Kyle knowing the instant they got home that the itchy material that had woven within it unwanted memories of the past would be thrown away, discarded and hopefully forgotten.

They had come back in one piece and Kyle was relieved to say the least, he had never realised how much his job relied upon him and now in quiet satisfaction he gloried over the fact. The most important thing was that both of them were unfazed though, they had voiced the events, how psychological tactics were opted more than anything else, that they hadn't had time to go through with their plan.

Either way they had weakened an opposing force, their nightworld captives were now running the streets. Maybe an uncomfortable fact for the night world council but an extra advantage for the company if they were contacted to get it under control, a little more money wouldn't do anyone anymore harm.

Jess turned around to the glass panelling, separating the examination room from the rest of the medical centre and caught his eye and smiled. Next time he would make sure that a circumstance like that wouldn't arise; the next time Ryan's family interfered they wouldn't be around to try it again. Wiping out a nightworld family wouldn't affect him, especially when it included Jess, even if Ryan's feelings were hurt or not.

He smiled back and turned around, making his way to his office. He already had started packing away his things and was glad that he would soon no longer have to make the long trips around the Company's compound. He wasn't as young and his poor legs weren't as supple as they used to be either.

As he passed each department, from the medical through to the training centre and then up to the offices, Kyle pressed his hand against the scanner, the voice recognition program had only been in for the last three years but he had slowly got used to it as he had to all the rest. He half heartily sighed, realising all the things he would leave behind, all the people.

When he got to his office, the blinds were pulled down and the rising sun was filtering through the windows. He hadn't slept since they had been reported missing and was revelling in the joy of being able to get some tonight.

Sitting down at his desk new folders caught his attention, the company were thinking about increasing their recruit intake, meaning they recruited more frequently than just then every five years.

Unsurprised by their new greed, Kyle had agreed upon the new idea, him being the one who processed the new recruits and actually filtered through many of the chosen. He flipped through the file and paper clipped a smaller sheet of paper to it, reminding them that they needed to expand their recruitment area, maybe spreading down into Mexico and up to Canada.

Missing children was a big thing now days, runaways were a common occurrence, but Night worlders were suspicious by instinct and he thought it was better that it was expanded more so parents in the same situation couldn't exchange notes, they already had enough unwanted attention without that.

Putting the folder in his out file he flipped open the next, Ivy Jenkins history laid before him, the perfect grades, the perfect home and the perfect lifestyle. Confirming his suspicions he shut the folder and lay it in his desk draw he lifted himself up and carried himself to his private suite. The burden of age making itself known, he yawned and contented himself to a slight nap.

* * *

Jess lay awake in the company compound's walls securely around her and Ryan's body sleepily lying against her back. She had been spooked, that now real dream lay at the top of her mind haunting her, it had been there all the time and now she had let it slip through her fingers.

A contented sigh sounded behind her and she couldn't help but shiver in delight as Ryan's breath tickled the back of her neck. No matter how much things had changed in the last twenty-four hours, with her and Ryan and the realisation what the dream was she was still stuck in the in between.

Ever so happy, knowing that she would wake with Ryan there in the morning, exhilarated as her to have some decent sleep at last after everything and then she would see his smile and her insides would melt. The thought of all the years they were just friends melting away into the background but the main thing was that she was afraid.

Afraid that when she fell asleep that the dream would no longer be there, that this one big leap and bound in her life that had haunted her over the last couple of weeks would suddenly disappear and she would feel hollow, not knowing what had happened and knowing that she would never know.

She had been so scared, so scared someone was tapping into her brain but now she just felt odd and insecure, what would it mean when she fell asleep and it wasn't there, what did it mean if it were? Her eyes shifted to the bedside table where the sleeping tablets lay that the nurse had given her; they had both been given the subscription of a lot of sleep and a vacation. A week of not working, it was like a gap year for her, all that time without maiming people.

She grabbed the tablets and the glass of water that lay on the side and shifted onto her front, resting on her elbows. With a quick motion she swallowed the tablets and drank the water, she heaved a sigh and drew herself up against Ryan. And tried not to think of the impending actions.

Half an hour later, she fell asleep, her shallow breathing now joining Ryan's.

Twenty minutes after that she woke with a start, her dream still in her mind's eye, an empty cold cell dwelling in the now half opened door. It would never stop, a torment that she had missed her chance of discovering.

* * *

Jess glanced over to Ryan as he perched on the brick wall clad all in black and impeccable as always. He motioned Jess to follow him and dropped over to the other side, silently she followed. They kept their backs to the wall, keeping in with the shadows as they made their way across the back of the ornate garden.

It was just another kill like the rest, this time easier, their first assignment on their own. They had been coupled with Gunner and Mia for the last two weeks and now at last they had the freedom of it all to themselves. She didn't know how much she missed her job until now.

Noting the couple in the window Ryan made his way to the house, close to the edge and out of sight. They were in the most advantage here, the couple would be blind to anything in the garden within a couple of metres distance, they were oblivious as they romanced under the fierce blast of light.

Touching Ryan's sleeve she motioned to the back door, humans were stupid these days. They thought that because there was no gate to their back garden that they could keep the back door unlocked, theirs now stood just slightly ajar, them maybe enjoying the last of the summer's cool night breezes.

Nodding at her he headed there first, keeping to the edges of the dining's rooms lights and to the kitchen door. They withdrew their weapons at the door and made their way in. They were always given the basics when given a job; this was a legal man going over his head. Looking into the workings of the gangster clique, normally this would be fine, but some nightworld bigwigs ran these and too many workings were rather illegal.

Illegal to the extent that even the nightworld council would frown upon them in a way that death sentences would have to be handed out. So that's where a rather indiscreet assassin service came in order, yet the details were it to be carried out in the messiest way possible, taking jewellery and making it look like a fumbled robbery, destroying the computer and his files while they were at it.

Jess let Ryan deal with the man and she headed towards the screaming woman, quietening her within seconds. A deserted place outside of town might now seem like not a good idea, especially when this came out on the evening news about the warnings of violent burglaries.

A lot of people would keep their doors locked after this, Jess smiled to her self as she headed upstairs and up to the bedroom and nevertheless the jewellery supply. At least they were doing one good thing tonight; she passed her reflection in the mirror and glanced at it for a second as she saw a jewellery box on the dresser.

It must be a shock to be attacked by a couple of teenager and Ryan and her looked like a couple of thugs to the detail. They both wore black slim clothing and Ryan with his black leather gloves and Jess with her disposable surgical ones, they both wore hoods keeping their hair out of the way and also out of the way of any DNA testing. The company didn't make mistakes and little ones like that were the worst. The only things they didn't have covered were their faces.

The Company had merely said that they were in no risk of being recognised anyway, they were there to kill their victims not let them run off and tell everyone in the perimeter. If you got caught or recognised, it was their own fault; they merely didn't do the job properly and all they had to remember after that was to keep their silence.

Pocketing the necessities and shoving the cosmetics on the floor, Jess went to the cupboard and tried to all her will to make it look like she'd been rummaging through there. Emptying out some drawers she finally made her way out of the room, entering the others on the way down and randomly pocketing interesting objects and discarding the rest.

From the look of the ground floor, Ryan had been having a good time of it as well. The computer was a sizzling heap on the floor and the modem was shattered to pieces. Picking up the computer monitor he emptied the oven of all its metal shelves and shoved the computer in there, turned it up to the top temperature. Ryan always had a turn for the dramatics.

Turning the answer machine off they made their way out of the back door and back over the back wall, Ryan having to give Jess a help up as the treasure in her backpack weighed her down. Ten minutes later they made their way to the car that was parked in a hedge way down the road.

Shoving her backpack in the back seat, Jess yawned and let Ryan drive them the long way back to the Company, they would have to stop at a motel at the rate they were going. But as Ryan kept reminding her, the company didn't like taking any unnecessary risks so Jess would be sleeping for the first four hours as Ryan headed them in the right direction.

"What do you think the Company will do with the goods?"

Ryan shrugged, "Give it off as good will sentiments, but you know them. They'll give it to the company in the Far East or some place far off. Never leave any trails, you know their motto; why buy anything when you can get it for free?"

Jess couldn't help but laugh, "you going to Kyle's retirement do?"

"Of course," Ryan chorused looking mischievously at her.

"Why do I feel paranoid?"

"No reason," he muttered, "I'm just going to get you mercilessly drunk and drive you home so I can take advantage of you."

A smile curved over her lips, "that's sounds appealing."

* * *


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Ryan paced up and down the training ground and looked sideways at Jess as she languidly leant against the wire fence. He didn't like this part, it was a time when all the old recruits would have to go back and do demonstrations for the current trainees.

And in some cases it meant beating them senseless until they realised what their mistakes were. A lot of the others found it as a nice stress reliever, but Jess and Ryan still had their own memories of these demonstrations and it still left it's own bitter taste.

The requirements that you would be called in at least once every six months depending on the assignment load; in all the time they had been here they never had to do this, it had simply never occurred to the Company before. Jess and Ryan were the best in their year and were always at the top of the list for the assignments but now the Company was giving them a slow relaxation period that meant they had no other choice when they were rang up about this.

Ryan stilled himself and waited next to Jess, his fingers now coming up and twining within her hair, she was his beauty and he didn't want to even think now of a time before when they weren't like this. She turned around to face him and softly smiled, "you all right?"

He nodded slowly, they were still waiting for the others to come out and he didn't even want to think of the events ahead. Her hands came up and drifted through his hair and to the back of his neck, he couldn't help but shiver as she drew him near and his head came to rest in the curve of her neck, the smell of lavender caressing her body.

He planted small kisses along the crescent of her neck and slowly made his way up as he felt Jess' hand tighten on the back of his neck. A second later a sharp cough interrupted their escapades. A bit miffed, Ryan looked up to see their old training master looking across at them with his steely eyes.

Disregarding him, Ryan straightened himself up and kept his arm snaked around Jess's waist, around about ten stiffly uniformed recruits were stood rigid in front of them.

Their old teacher turned back to his recruits and shouted aimless commands; the fear of him had long gone from the both of them. The thing that these recruits didn't realise was that commander Ingle had never killed any one in the situations they would have to in a couple of years.

He was just a tool to put the fear of God into them and mould them into the palatable assassins that the Company wanted. Ryan had always remembered the assassins in the demonstrations and the way they were so arrogant and nonchalant around the commander when the others were too afraid to move without his command.

And like the assassins who had been there in his training he was going to keep that little secret to him self as well, the commander was the only one who could keep him in line when he was training and he already guessed he probably wasn't the only one like that.

"Recruits, this is Ryan Leoman and Jessica Thomson. They will be teaching you today, the same rules apply to them as they do to me, do not speak to them until you are spoken to and obey do you hear me?"

A chorus of 'yes commander' erupted from the group and with a stiff turn the commander turned around and exited the training grounds.

Ryan couldn't help eyeballing the recruits with a grim look, "we'll be helping you shine up on your attacks, which basically means you're going to going away with a lot of cuts and bruises. No one learns by sitting and watching, believe me, we've been through exactly what you're going through and you haven't even been to Japan yet," a mean streak entered his eyes and he couldn't help but tease them, "and oh what fun that was," he added dryly.

Shaking her head, Jess nudged him out of the way and surveyed the batch of 1991, the next batch after theirs and five years behind them. A group of twelve to thirteen year olds stood staring at them, this batch would have seen the assassins from their group before over and over, the demonstrations were held every two months until they spent the last two years of the training in Japan.

It would be hard on them like it was on the others; they had lost a couple of friends there that they had thought would last until the end. Japan was what they could never imagine.

"We'll split you up in two groups and change over after lunch, Ryan will be teaching you about his best talent," she couldn't keep a smile from her mouth, "well one of them anyway, he'll be teaching you about intimidation and the best ways of torture."

The recruits had barely begun puberty so she doubted if they'd get her sexual innuendo. "And me, I'll be teaching you about Katana's and swordplay. This will be useful, especially before you head off to Japan."

Jess had been the teacher's pet at the Japan training centre, she couldn't help it; Akiko had taken a shine to her and had even started giving her private lessons saying she had far more potential than the rest.

She did outclass all the others in her group but she could easily blame that on the one on one attention from her sensei and even getting a specially made sword for her that was made to balance with her perfectly. She was due to go back there in eighteen months time for the sensei's seventieth birthday, by that time this lot would be in full training there and wishing they weren't.

In all the years that the training centre had been set up in Japan she was sure that she was the only one who had enjoyed the time there. The sensei had reminded her of her father and she had an automatic friendship with him, she was the only one allowed to see him after the training hours were over. She still missed him sometimes.

She led her group over to the other side of the training group and stuck her tongue out at Ryan as he headed the other direction. She couldn't help laugh as he tried to make a funny face at her, leaving the recruits around them in bafflement. She supposed they hadn't seen two assassins flirting so much with each other before in public, Jess decided then on not to be so harsh on them.

Once they were far enough from the group and she had gotten the recruits to help her get some of her personal weaponry from Ryan's car they had headed back in, depositing them in the furthest corner. For the first lesson, Jess got out her Katana and showed the recruits around her.

"I was given this from the same sensei who will teach you, this will slice through bone and any other material that will get in your way." She bounced it in her hand playfully, "there was one thing that the sensei told me and that was to always be aware of smiling, short bald old men," she couldn't help but smile, "a lot of the martial arts masters happen to look like that, especially after decades of training."

She had laughed when Akiko had told her that because it was the image of him to a tee, now whenever Karate kid was repeated on the TV she couldn't help but laugh.

Sheathing her Katana, Jess rummaged in the cloths and produced two bokkens. She turned back to the recruits, "now who wants to spar?" a tidal wave of hands erupted in the air.

Noticing a confidently stood young shifter near the front she motioned him forwards and threw him the bokken, he expertly caught it and stood opposite her.

"Your name?" she asked as she flexed her fingers.

"Beckett, sir." He said looking down.

Jess couldn't help but sigh, "my name is Jess and that is what you all will be calling me, well away from Ingle anyway," she had never like Ingle, a man with too much power and had no commiserations about using it.

"Beckett? I have eyes, look at me; you need eye contact in this," Beckett looked up and she smiled at him, "good."

"Now take a blow at me."

Hesitating for a moment Beckett looked uncertainly at her, his blue eyes wary but seeing the look in her eyes he threw himself in the swiping move with the bokken.

Without losing eye contact Jess blocked it and with a final flick the bokken flew from his hands and into the wire fence.

"Good first go, go pick up the bokken and I will teach you how to hold it."

Beckett nodded and headed over to collect it, looking over the six others in the group she turned around and uncovered six more bokkens out of the cloths.

Putting them on the floor she ordered the recruits to pick one up each, "now lamia, be careful, they may look blunt but with the right force any limb can be dismembered. So people please don't go brandishing them about and make sure no one's in striking distance."

She retook her place at the front of the group next to Beckett, "now hold your weapon out, yes that's good. Now make sure that it feels like an extension of your arm…"

For the next couple of hours Jess taught them the basics about the bokken and its training purposes and then she went on to her knives and her beautiful daggers that she had started to collect sometime last year.

"There are a lot of things you have to remember in this job and one of them is the public's fear. The people of our country have been bred to fear, they stay at home shining their guns and waiting for their attackers they've spent creating while watching the national news channel. The thing is, they're afraid of the wrong things. Afraid of the muggers, the rapists, the petty street gangs… they should be afraid of us and yet don't know of our existence, which is all to our advantage."

She held one of her small knives in her hand, it was made out of silver and was curved beautifully, the hilt engraved with linking dragons, "you need to twist their fears, especially if you need them to talk," a smile curved on her lips and the recruits watched her mesmerised, "having a telepathic partner helps, but it doesn't matter. You can see it in their faces; see it as you enter their homes. People's homes are their sanctuaries, their safe dwelling from the outside world that's filled with its hate and anger. You crossing over into their world with all you know and will eventually aspire. Has an effect to break any of our little citizens."

"Now," she sat down on the hard ground and looked at them all, "any of you have any questions because…" she looked at her watch, "we have ten minutes until lunch."

A girl called Karla at the back put her hand up, "is Japan going to be as bad as they make it out to be?"

Jess couldn't lie to her, "we lost two people from our group in Japan, just do what the sensei says and you'll survive. I did and I'm only human, it'll be easy for you lot."

Beckett put his hand up, "but how," he hesitated for a his golden eyes somehow searching inwards for the rest of the question, "the thing is we're nightworld and the last six years have been hell for us. You're survived here for eleven years and one of the best in your group and you're human, didn't you ever feel like giving up?"

She looked bluntly at him, her green eyes flattening to a lifeless green, "of course I did and I would have given up if it wasn't for Ryan and the others. But I had a lot to lose, my life and outside of this place I had nothing to live for. So I had to make things to live for, had to create ambitions and a loyalty to my friends, a loyalty that meant that I would never leave them behind and do something so stupid. We all have thoughts of giving up but then, what would all this hardship be worth? There's a point to this and in the end you'll finally see it."

Another hand came up, a girl who had stayed silent throughout the whole demonstration, "my name is Holly, I was um wondering do you regret any of the things you've done? Um, I mean with the killings."

Jess gulped, "we learn not to regret as you will learn and most of you already have, but it's hard, especially when it includes children. But you do it because that's what you've been trained to do and you live with it like everything else… right, one more question."

A different hand shot up and she gained eye contact with a black eyed boy sitting near the front, he had somehow gained her attention through the lesson with his deep eyes and had made sure she learnt his name, Laramie began to speak, "have you seen your family yet? I mean they said we could when we got to adulthood and became independent, but it sounds unlikely we will."

She shook her head, "I've kept away from them, violence isn't altogether accepted in the human world as it is in the nightworld, but people in my group have… a couple of people. It's hard, explaining what happened for the last elevens years can be a bit of a mouthful but some find that it's worth the effort."

"Do you?" she looked at Laramie then and the answer must have been in her eyes because then he just slowly nodded as if understanding something and he turned around.

She got herself up, "you lot better go for lunch, Ryan will be teaching you for the last half of today. Have a nice break and I'll see you around."

Jess watched them walk off and stood by the sidelines as Ryan finished showing his audience some special sensitive parts on the body you could use to your advantage. Within a second he turned around and smiled at her and excused his little audience.

They were left alone in the training ground and a chill went down her spine as the memories of the children's screaming filled her ear.

She blinked and looked at Ryan, "how was your lot?"

"Good," he came up to her and put his arm around her waist, "they were a bit afraid of me, but what can you expect?"

She nodded at him and headed for the canteen, away from the recruits and the haunting memories of years not so distant. "We only have a few more hours and we can go home, I think we need to talk to Kyle about getting more work."

Ryan shrugged, "we could or we could spend all our spare time in bed?"

A faint smile touched her lips, "but what would people think?"

"When have we ever cared?"

* * *

And as they had requested they were given a couple assignments the very next day. It was in the next city and not exactly the place Jess wanted to be but she handled it with ease and opened the folder with the details enclosed. Kyle had already briefed them on the basic details before they left, it seemed petty; an ex-husband wanted revenge on a cheating wife and best friend.

Unluckily for the wife, the husband had powerful contacts in the nightworld even if he didn't know it and had employed discreet services. The assignment would be completed tonight and the execution of a nightworld turned Daybreaker would be taken care of the very next day, by the cover of night of course.

Jess looked over to Ryan, who she had conned into driving again.

"Can we keep away from the east side of the city?"

"Sure, any reason?"

"I have family there and I don't want them to recognise me. After our last experience with family members I just want to give the whole capture scene a miss this time."

Ryan's glare was full of daggers, "that's not funny."

"I wasn't saying it was," she shrugged, "I'd just rather not get involved in their lives is all."

Ryan didn't say anything to argue with her statement and carried on driving in silence. He had never taken a stance in Jess's life when he had always let her stay by her decisions. She would realise later on if not if it was the right one.

They had gotten themselves a room at the best hotel in the city. They would have worried about drawing unnecessary attention. But this was just another city and people died all the time and would they really suspect two supposive rich kids having a naughty couple of days in a hotel?

People were gullible and they had nothing to worry about. By the evening they had already settled and had clad loose clothing as they exited the hotel and made their way in their company car as they drove to the neighbourhood of the first target. It looked like it was the poor area of the city and they made sure that they found themselves the next middle class neighbourhood where they could park their car.

Taking off their outer clothing they got out of the car, clad in black with weapons and equipment in their small backpacks on their backs. They walked the distance in partial silence, talking when necessary and keeping their eyes out for any suspicious behaviour.

Half an hour later they made their way to the building where their assignment would be carried out, having already been unsuccessfully mugged with ultimate failure by a gang of youths they had come out unscathed but still concerned that they would be noticed, but why would guys like that go up to the police and say they had been assaulted, how would they explain the circumstances? Jess loved the modern day law system.

* * *

Kyle stopped for a moment and stood outside in the chilly air, the end of the summer was drawing near. The winter ached him to the bone these days and couldn't wait to get back to the compound and his well- heated room.

He knocked on the door in front of him. He had ended up in the nice part of the neighbourhood, the place with the little white picket fences and large green lawns.

Ivy Jenkins answered the door; all Kyle could do was smile at her as she tried to hide the visible shocked expression on her face.

"Evening Ivy," he muttered, "I figured we need to talk and for your own safety I thought it was best that we did it in private."

Kyle patiently waited as Ivy's brain ticked over, in the end she stood aside and motioned him in; he nodded at her as he made her way past her.

"If I were you I'd put the Kettle on, we have a lot to get through."

* * *

The assignment had been easy and Jess had a little skip in her step as they made their way back. Yet the problems first arose when they were half way back and making their way through another dark alley when the attack happened.

It would have been easy if it was the ignorant thieves from before but now they were out numbered and equally skilled. Eight darkly clad people surrounding them, blocking the two retreats and squaring both of them up.

Jess just sighed and glanced over to Ryan, "Ninja's I guess."

"You guessed right," one of them replied back, Jess couldn't tell them apart they were all hooded and all looming in on them.

"Who did we piss off this time then?"

But no one answered them and they went all straight in to attack, with the first two Jess was fine she had knocked the first's head against the wall and the second she had struck his knee cap with her foot and had broken his leg at a very ugly angle. The thing was that they weren't playing fair and being as stupid as the rest and attacking one at a time, the last two were keeping her busy blocking moves.

She pushed one back and elbowed the other, but the first one was back again, she lost balance as one tried to grab hold of her arm and she twisted to get out of it, she swung back and cracked her head against the wall behind her, she didn't only hear the crunch but felt it.

Ignoring the pain and shaking her head to get the dizziness out of the way she jumped back up and broke one of the ninja's arms and then kneed him while he was distracted. The other one being obviously concerned because of the state of his companions hastily came in for an attack, Jess blocked him and then head butted him, it didn't improve her head ache but he stumbled back and looked at her shocked.

From what she could call shocked from just being able to see his eyes. She shook her head, in disdain and also to get the light feeling out of her head. She rushed forwards and rammed his head against the wall opposite. A healthy crunch followed and he fell to the ground.

Ryan just walking over his last fallen ninja came over to her and she motioned him so they could get out of the area as soon as possible. She followed him and they made their way to the car, as soon as they were there Jess fell into her seat and couldn't help stopping her eyelids from drooping.

Ryan knelt in front of her, "I saw you fall, are you alright? Let me see it."

Jess lean forward as far as she could and bent her head down, she had already felt the blood trickle down her neck a while ago and knew that it wasn't good.

She could hear his intake of breath, "how do you feel?"

"Sleepy," was all she could mutter.

All she could feel was Ryan get her up and hold her there, "you have to keep awake, ok? Are you hearing me? Jess talk to me, you might have a concussion."

Her eyes opened and she tried to get everything into focus, she glanced beside her and watched Ryan get out his cell phone.

After a couple of rings Ryan began to speak, "this is Ryan Leoman, on assignment 6853H. We've had a hitch, the assignment has been carried out all well and good but we got attacked afterwards." Ryan sighed and someone prattled down the other end, "I know, I know. But these were nightworld ninjas and there were eight against two, Jessica Thomson has been injured, she has a head wound and a likely concussion, if we drive back to the compound its likely she'll lapse deeper, we need a local hospital and we need it now. I need permission."

The prattling noise sounded again on the other end and Jess had to keep on blinking, she found it helped to kind of keep things in focus. Ryan sighed, "I know, I know. We know all the excuses, thank you and I'll report back later tonight."

He ended the call in a huff and shook Jess slightly as her head started drooping down again.

"Hon, are you listening to me. The hospital is a five minute drive, you get back into the car and keep on talking to me alright."

She nodded faintly, he glared at her and she cleared her throat, "yes Ryan."

"Good."

They got back in the car and Jess tried to prattle on, "and then I said ooh, la, la and she looked at me funny. Ryan I can sing you a song if you want?"

"Anything Honey," he muttered as he tried to cut his way in front of a delivery van.

"Ok, I like this song," she cleared her throat theatrically. "Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are…

"Jessica, not that I don't like your song and the originality of it… wait a second," he finally found a stupid parking space and rushed out and pulled her out of the car. Jess followed having no idea what she was really doing but knowing that she felt really tired and that no matter how much she blinked she couldn't get the haze of grey out of her vision.

Her mind had degenerated back fifthteen years and she once again had a ten second attention span. Half dragging her in, Ryan plopped her against the desk in the emergency room, the nurse looked up and glanced at him and then again. Ryan wasn't ethereally beautiful for nothing.

"Can I have help here?" his voice was on the edge of panic and Jess looked at the pretty nurse, "we were mucking about and my girlfriend fell back and slammed her head against a wall, it's bleeding like anything and I think she's got a concussion. Jessica! Jessica!" Her wandering attention came back to him and she yawned again and passed out on the floor.

The nurse was shouting and people were picking her up taking her to a separate room. A doctor tried to stop Ryan following him in the examination room; Ryan just pushed past him and glared.

Jessica was going nowhere without him and he didn't care if protocol forbade him or not. He now suddenly knew that he should have done more so this had never happened.

* * *


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

"I know what you are." The statement was easy and Ivy seemed to choke on the tea she had just been delicately sipping.

She gathered herself together miraculously well and straightened her posture, "I don't know what you mean Mr Richards."

Kyle smiled, he might be old but he wasn't stupid. His eyes seemed to linger on twitching fingers and up to her face with her pale blue anxious eyes. If she was going to carry this off she would have to learn to conceal herself more, this was a despicable disguise.

Looking down he rubbed his right wrist and tried to flex his aching bones, "I looked into your past, got the whole file of it in my office actually and things just didn't add up so I did some of my own digging." He paused, merely for effect and watched as her eyes flicked about the room.

"You were brought up in the right area, went to the right schools. Knew all the right people and things were just too right. And then I remembered a conversation I was having with one of the executives a few years ago. Saying that a vigilante group were re-emerging and were opposing the nightworld council by encouraging the relations with human and even opening this witch circle up where humans could join as well. I just merely scoffed at him and said how very much trouble that were going to cause themselves…"

"Mr Richards I don't understand why you're…"

"Shhhh," he interrupted, "you soon will. But as the years went on I heard some more tales and even some facts as well and the more I heard the better established they were coming and also better run.

The thing I heard was that they have a finger in every pie and liked to know what was going on and then my thoughts ran to our little company and how immoral that they would think it was… kidnapping children? What would they say? And that was the time I came across your name. Do you have any idea why I chose you to take over my job?"

"No Mr Richards," she was sinking into her self now and Kyle could see it, she knew he knew and was waiting for the execution order.

"I saw the same steely look in your eyes as I did in my eyes when I was younger, when I first entered this job. But that look brought me more miseries than I can count and then I began to see a different side to you, the unsure side, the side who would always look behind her as she walked along the corridor. Circle Daybreak have a habit of having a non-violent attitude and then I thought that they'd like to probably stop this type of company and the only way they could do that was from inside."

"Mr Richards, if I could explain…"

"Please don't," he said as gently as he could, "the problem being in my job that having a conscience can only get in the way. For years and years I was fine, but something happened and I fell off that cold, steely wagon. I won't tell anyone about this little conversation and my little theory as long as you do something for me."

"What would that be Mr Richards?" he could hear the worry in her voice.

He couldn't help but sigh, "stay where you are, you'll be having my job in a matter of days and the knowledge of what I know will be going with me but I want a deal and unless you carry it out the Company will know straight away who this insider is."

"Name it and I'll see what I can do."

"You take down the company from the inside and everything will fall down, I can even give you pointers but something has to be drawn up now, the assassins, all of them will not be harmed. They're just innocent bystanders…"

"They're killers…"

"Who'd probably love to be doing something else, you take the control centre down and the assassin won't be having any orders coming through and that's it, no company and the rest can go and live on their lives, knowing that the company aren't a few feet behind them tracking them down…"

"I don't know…"

"Listen Ivy," he was losing his patience, "these were innocent children ripped away from their families, tell that to your sympathetic daybreakers. They were broken so they could do what they could do, broken by fear and hate, all they need is a reason and they can be better people. You can take down that company without even needing to hurt one of those assassins."

"I'll get in contact with headquarters and propose it to them."

He got himself up and made his way to the door, opening it he turned around, "if the answer is no, don't bother getting in contact with me, just disappear… for your own sake just run as fast as you can."

* * *

Doctor Peretz leant tiredly against the nurse's station and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Only four more hours to go and he would finish and off home for him. Not that he didn't love his job, he did, he had a fiery passion that so many lacked these days but the workload had been big today and the hospital staff had been near non existent.

Mrs Fenella was still pacing the corridor and he felt sorry for her, she had been here all year pacing the corridor waiting for a bone marrow donator that would match with her sons. None of her family had matched so now was the long and desperate wait for a match, he shook his head and rested it on the counter just for an instant.

His eyes closing for just a second, he was sure it was just a second, he could feel all his muscles relax and all he wanted to do was just… his head shot up as a nurse called to him from down the corridor. Massaging his aching temple he looked down the corridor to the nurse running towards him.

Shannon, now how many sweet dreams had he had about her? Not musing on the thought he walked slowly up to her and met her halfway.

"Jason, there you are. I know you're really busy doing all the work Greg's meant to be doing but we've got a patient in the observation room downstairs. She's got a concussion, she's stable now but we've sent her for a x-ray, a scan, you know the normal thing."

"So you want me to look at them?"

Shannon eagerly nodded, "that'll be great," she looked beside them to Mrs Fenella, she was a well known in the hospital now, "as long as everything is fine up here of course."

Mrs Fenella smiled, "Kieran is asleep, we're fine here."

"Good," Shannon turned back to him, "now the patients name's Jessica Thomson..."

Mrs Fenella went a subtle shade of white, "did… did you say Jessica Thomson?"

Shannon went to her side to steady her, "yes I did, do you know her?"

Mrs Fenella took a deep breath, "how, how old is she… if she's eighteen…"

"Yes, yes she is, a pretty thing she is as well, she's downstairs with her boyfriend. I can take you down to see her if you like?"

Mrs Fenella shook her head, "I, I need phone my husband, maybe later."

Shannon left Mrs Fenella as she took off down the corridor and passed the patients details over to Jason, "now she's not the most talkative but everything is there that you need to know."

* * *

Jess yawned and was about to poke the back of her head again as Ryan slapped her hand away.

"Leave it alone," he ordered.

"But it aches."

"What do you expect? Maybe it'll stop when you stop poking it."

She stuck her tongue at him, she had been given ten stitches and was told that she needed to be in here overnight and take it easy. So that now meant that Ryan would have to do the last assignment by himself. Jess couldn't help but feel apprehensive for him.

A doctor in a white overcoat came in and smiled at her, he must have been in his mid twenties and looked like he was near the end of a very long shift, she couldn't muster a smile back so she just waved.

"So you're our little concussed one, now can you lean forward so I can see your head please?"

She did as he asked; she had woken up about an hour ago, her head being stitched up and an anxious Ryan peering across from the corner.

The doctor stepped back, "you can sit back now," he went back out of the door and called one of the nurses, he came back in with a folder and produced her x-rays. "Now all looks fine, you'll have to stay overnight. I'll be getting one of the experts upstairs to be looking at your scans later on and get back to you."

Ryan stood up and shook his hand, "thank you so much, I was really worried."

The doctor compassionately patted him on the back, "no worries, it can be a bit of a shock sometimes when things like this happens to the people you love. I can speak to the nurse if you want and you can sleep overnight."

Ryan beamed back, "yes, that would be great."

Looking at Ryan, Jessica coughed, "maybe you should go back and get some clean clothes," Ryan was still wearing his all in black clothing, they had told the nurses they had just come back from an amateur dramatics lesson. Thankfully they had been satisfied with that.

If not they weren't really sure what other lie they could come up with, they couldn't just drop the casual line, 'oh we've just been out assassinating people and we had the insolence of getting attacked on our hasty retreat,' for some reason she didn't really think they would be that cooperative in her treatment.

Ryan came up to her and stroked back some hair, the doctor still near the door chatting to one of the nurses.

"Are you sure you'll be alright here on your own?"

She smiled at him, "I'll be fine," she pulled him forward and kissed him, "now be a good boy and get me some decent clothes for when I get out, my last are a bit blood stained." He pulled back and was just about to leave when she called his name.

He stopped dead midway to the door and turned around to her, "Yes?" "Ryan I love you."

He beamed back and came over to her bedside and kissed her again, "I love you too, now sleep and I'll be back before you know it."

He didn't want to leave her and Jess would have let him stay if they were in any other different situation, but he would have to phone back the Company and give them a up date of their situation and make the arrangements for the assignment tomorrow. Hopefully the ones that had attacked them would learn their lesson this time and leave it alone.

She didn't fancy another demonstration of tonight. She watched as he left and the doctor came over and took her pulse, "do you want some pain killers for your head."

Jess blinked and shook her head, "no, it doesn't hurt that much, just aches."

The doctor laughed, "you're much braver than I am, I'd be dosed up by now, I'm not one for pain."

All she could do was pretend to laugh with him; her pain threshold level had gone up many levels since the Company had recruited her. They always had that precise manner of being able to get the most out of you and that was mainly with pain and a lot of psychological digging, once you had got used to one brand of punishment they would put it up a level just so they got a reaction each time.

The doctor made his leave and Jess nestled down in her bed and let her eyes half close, she'd feel better when Ryan got back. Anyone could walk into her room now and was open to any type of attack if the black clad ninja guys knew she was here.

But the black clad ninjas weren't the next lot of people to walk in the room, a woman in her forties with greying black hair and creased clothes stood precariously in the doorway. Jess's eyes automatically widened and she sat herself up, so tonight was going to be a bit more painful after all.

As the woman slowly came forward, Jess couldn't help but notice the man behind her, someone she didn't recognise but she instantly categorised as human and harmless. The woman stopped a foot away from her bed and tears fell silently down her face.

"Jessica?"

"Hello Mother."

* * *

Kyle waited patiently in his office, his fingers tapping a beat against the top of his desk, the dark varnished wood feeling cool and smooth against his fingers. The news from the office had come in ten minutes ago. Jessica had been harmed and was in a public hospital.

Couldn't those two keep out of trouble for more than a few weeks? He would have written a note to reprimand them, but he knew it wasn't their fault, they were being targeted and the Company had no idea why. Ryan's family had been in the spotlight for a while but they had been under surveillance ever since Ryan and Jessica had been released and they had stayed to themselves ever since.

Something was definitely going on and it couldn't be the day breakers either. They weren't likely to send Ninja's after their assassins; they were a non-violent organisation, well in most situations anyway.

A list of their competitors would be drawn out and the most suspicious would be put under surveillance and at the extreme, be extinguished.

One week and he would be able to clear his desk, not having to deal with anything like this anymore and he'd be able to wave his job goodbye, but only if Ivy went along with her part of the deal, if she could get her superiors to go along with it that is.

He was weighing all his hopes onto that girl and feared that she wouldn't be able to carry them out, what would happen if she didn't turn up for work tomorrow? What would he do if she disappeared like he warned her to do, he would have to stay here then.

Stay here for even longer and choose another pitiful candidate out of the milling sheep out in the office area. He only now hoped that Ivy would be able to do something worthwhile for once.

When did just one human have a chance to take down a multi- millionaire assassin company? She would be reigned a hero in her Daybreak home and if not?

She'd just be another one who had failed an assignment, but this time she would have let thousands of more die in the hands of the Company's assassins.

* * *


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Jessica wanted the world to swallow her up suddenly. Her mother stood dumbfounded in front of her, the last eleven years had been kind to her, only a few grey hair stood stark against the black. Jess had gotten her looks from her mother, the slim face and cream skin but she had inherited her father's eyes, eyes that always seemed accusing to her dear mother.

Jessica looked into her mother's brown eyes, eyes from her childhood that she could remember looking down on her. Always with a resenting flaw set in them, always trying to make Jessica into someone she couldn't and didn't want to be.

She pressed the emergency button beside her bed, the coldness from her decision a few years back now set in her.

A nurse in her mid twenties came in, the one who had come in with Dr Peretz; she smiled at her mother. "Mrs Fenella, what are you doing here?" surprise sounded in her voice, she looked over to Jessica. "Everything alright here?"

"No," she answered coldly, "I want these people to leave."

Distress clearly swamped her mother's face, "but Jessica? I've missed you so much…"

Jessica cut her off, "I want these people out of my room, I'm recovering from a concussion and I don't need another headache…"

A voice boomed from the doorway, her mother's male friend was finally speaking up, "how dare you speak like that to your own mother!"

Her eyes shifted over to him and where he had placed himself beside her mother, he seemed like a man who thought he had power, "my mother?" she laughed harshly, "eleven years is a very long time and I've lived perfectly well without her."

The nurse shifted uneasily and looked to Jessica's mother, "Mrs Fenella, I'm sorry to say this but I have to think of my patient's welfare and this isn't helping her at all except causing everyone distress."

"You're asking me to leave?" she squeaked.

"No, I am. I would be happy if you did that now thank you." Jessica didn't move an inch and looked at her mother unmoved by her anguish.

Her mother's chin trembled and she turned away, the man putting his arm over her shoulder and giving Jessica a convicting look.

Jessica shook her head, she had killed many of his kind and with a look he expected her to regret all her actions instantaneously, it would take way more than that.

With a snivelling retreat they left the room with the nurse standing there seemingly more distressed than Jessica, "I'll, I'll go and talk to them…" was all she could seem to mutter.

Jessica just nodded, "I don't want them anywhere near me." The nurse nodded softly and drifted out of the room, closing the door firmly behind her, at least the nurse had some excitement tonight. It gave her something to talk about tomorrow at least. Jessica rested back again and kept her eyes on the door.

Why did she always have to be the one with the bad luck? First with Ryan's brother, then her dreams, them being captured and her concussion and now with this.

God was against her and if not, well he would definitely have to work on his humour.

* * *

Mia looked at her watch for the fifth time that hour and sighed. Gunner lounged in the chair opposite her watching some primetime TV sitcom; his casual laughter filled the air.

"I'm worried about Jessica."

Gunner glanced at her and sighed, "you're always worried about Jessica."

"But you saw the message I got off Cherry… she's in hospital." Mia had always been close with Jessica, one of few who had that chance with her.

He shook his head, "yeah, what she got from Don and he got from Hira and so on and so on. Knowing them it's probably something minor, you know how good Jess and Ry are."

"I'm still worried," a long time ago while Mia was in her spell classes and Jess was learning her poisons they had performed a rather illegal spell, which even the people of the company would have frowned upon.

The spell was simple, they did a small blood tie ceremony where they became blood sisters and were bonded for eternity. They were eleven, eternity didn't seem so long to them then and childhood friendships are always promised to last that long. A couple of months later they had found out the true meaning of bonding.

It was on one of their personality making activities. Before being recruited Mia had always thought that those activities always included a tent, a load of children with a penknife and a permission slip saying that they could go on the survival weekend.

With these activities survival was always the key word to keep in mind and pain was as well, they were put through a lot of it. Jessica had broken her leg while being reprimanded for her lax work, two miles away Mia had fallen to the floor, a sharp pain striking through her own.

With every spell ever since she made sure that she read the small print. Mia's head ached with a mild throb; the thought of the reversing the spell had been considered then dismissed. This was their own way of keeping an eye out for each other, the only fear Mia had was what happened when one of them had the big old pain.

The pain of being killed by another assassin, or making a mistake when they shouldn't have done, what would happen to the other then?

"I'm still worried," she said again, she would get in contact with Kyle in the morning and if she were needed she would go all the way across America just to pick Jess up.

Enough people had been hurt in her life already; she didn't need Jess joining them.

* * *

Half an hour later Dr Peretz walked into her room and with a thoughtful look on his face, Jess could tell that he knew what had happened. That was all she needed, an understanding doctor. Now what a bitter pill this would be to swallow.

"I spoke to Mrs Fenella, eleven years is a long time to be missing." She drew up a chair next to her bed and sat there next to her, didn't he have patients to see?

"It's a pity she didn't look hard enough isn't it?" she knew her mother wouldn't have had any chance but she wasn't in the mood for pleasantries right now.

"Is this what it's about? You ran away and waited the last eleven years for her to find you, seems a bit petty to me."

She shook her head, this doctor had nerve; "for a doctor your spectre of scope is very limited, you think I ran away? I was taken Dr Peretz and ever since had a very harsh up bringing, like many things I put my family behind me, in the past where they belonged."

He looked at her with troubled eyes, "why didn't you call the police, you're out now…you shouldn't blame your mother."

"I don't blame her," she stated, "I don't even resent her, I just feel much better without her."

"You're lying," he casually said as if spouting out some medical fact.

She looked at him for a moment, what right did he have to question her? "It's the other way around you see, my mother resented me for a very long time, ever since I was born. Children are very receptive, more than some realise. My mother was young when I was born and my Dad was in and out of prison," she shrugged, "I saw the way she looked at me and all her snide remarks, I might have been taken but in the end I would have gone willingly."

"Your brother needs a bone marrow transplant," he said going straight to the point, "and you're his last chance at finding a match within the family."

Jessica laughed at him, "So this is your reason for being here?" she shook her head, "he's my half brother and nothing else, I don't even know the boy."

He shifted for a moment and seeming to have decoded something, "but he'll still die without your help, give something back to the world."

Her eyes hardened and she glared at him, "I've already sacrificed enough, the world's never given me anything and I'm not willing to give something back that I never took, even if it is for some random boy who happened to share some of my genes."

Seeing that he had somehow trodden and somersaulted himself over the line Dr Peretz got himself up and backed his way to the door, "call me if you decide differently."

"The likelihood of that Doctor is very rare."

He nodded at her solemnly and closed the door as he left the room.

* * *

She picked up and the phone and looked behind her to her colleagues. Ivy was never one for courage but she had be one now. She was taking a very big step, a step and a risk that would spell out the rest of her life for her for sure.

Dialling Kyle's number she waited for him to answer, after six rings he picked up. She didn't know if she was relieved or disappointed.

"It's Ivy, I've talked it over and it's agreed. I'll go through with it."

"Good."

Once again she couldn't tell anything from the tone of his voice and it annoyed the hell out of her, she was risking her life with this deal and the least he could do was let on that he was pleased with her decision.

"Only if you keep to the part of your deal though," she reminded him. The Daybreakers wanted to bring him in so they could go over every detail of the plan; it had taken a while to convince them that wasn't the way it was going to be played.

What she knew of Kyle already he would only want to deal with her.

The Company knew a lot and keeping this transaction unknown from them was going to be hard enough, they would know if Kyle had a meeting with a load of Daybreakers, life wasn't that easy when it concerned that company.

The Company constantly tried to make it self look like it took a back seat and let the assignments get carried out, but she knew that there were crucial people in there pulling all the strings, making sure that they got what they wanted.

The Company were a handful of men in a midst of ages, some being there from the start and some who had courageously made their way to the top. She had always wondered why Kyle had never headed for the top; he had the intelligence and capability for it she knew.

"My side will be carried out," he said brusquely, "I'll see you tomorrow morning and then I'll start the main things you'll need to know before I leave."

"Thank you," she muttered.

He coughed, clearing his throat, "think nothing of it Ivy, we'll both be getting something out of this, now goodnight."

"Night."

* * *

She sat there in the dark, Ryan curled up on the floor on a rolled out mattress that a nurse had brought in. They had been happy with the idea with Ryan staying, in a normal situation Jess would have to be checked up on at regular intervals, this way they didn't have to so much.

The hospital was understaffed and was in the middle of a big reshuffle with all the bigwigs at the top who would normally sort this type of thing out.

Her mum hadn't returned since she had thrown them out, Ryan, well he wasn't the most useful when she had eventually told him.

He had simply raised his eyebrows and shook his head, now he knew the reason why she asked him to stay away from the east side of the city, because of her mother and her new family. The one she had made once she knew that Jess was well out of the way. She shifted and flung her legs over the bed; Ryan still lay there asleep.

Why did this have to happen to her? Why did she have to be suddenly responsible for a boy's life? A brother she had never seen and had no real preference in the past to either. She was trained to take life, how could she set her rigid mind set and actually think of saving one instead. It wasn't in her nature, she had been born for the work she did and she knew it.

She wasn't going to wallow in self pity like some and say that she had to do this job, that a cruel hand of fate had picked her and if only she had been in a different place at a different time. It was all nonsense; there was a reason why she was the only human chosen to be recruited. This was her calling and no misled pretences of normality of a family would convince her otherwise.

She was Jessica Thomson, an A.S.G Assassin, paid well and she enjoyed every minute thrill of the job, why would she want to be anyone else?

She got herself to her feet and left Ryan a sleep on the floor. If she was any other person he would have felt her life force and would have woken up once she had moved, but she wasn't and little flaws like that were easily set aside. The company had a whole group of immoral witches on their side that for a large fee would magic a life force away.

It didn't only help her creep up on Ryan but also helped her with her other assignments, they didn't only hunt humans, they had a long list of targets, all the way from human, nightworld and to politicians. Jess had taken it upon herself a long time to stop categorising politicians as human, even if they were born it. All the morals they were born with soon melted away.

The things she had heard would make any normal person deaf with disgust. The world was a big power struggle and the politicians had simply taken the top seat in it, Jess liked the behind the scenes work she did. That way she wouldn't have to be hated by half the world and she could still act like she could sympathise with the human race, a lie of course, one that many still couldn't see through.

Pulling on her black pants from earlier and pulling a dressing gown around her she headed out of the room and headed down the corridor, easily passing the nurses station and scanning the list of wards next to the elevator. Her eyes slid to the cancer wards and she pressed the up button.

Ignoring her dislike for the elevator she climbed in, the memory of the cell still stark in her mind. She watched the floors go up, slower than she wanted, a couple of nurses getting on. Giving her concerned looks, it was early morning and a time all the patients were a sleep.

She ignored them and looked coolly ahead of her, getting to her floor she made her way past them and stood there as the doors closed behind her, now how would she find out where he was?

From looking into her family a few months back Jess knew she had two brothers and a little sister, Jacob, Kieran and Jane. So it would either be Jacob or Kieran Fenella, now how hard would that be. As she scanned the corridors she soon found out the easiness of it. Her mother was asleep in one of the chairs outside a room.

Walking past, Jess heart leapt in her chest and she slowly noted the name on the door and made her way in, pushing the door slowly open. So Kieran was the one, he was seven years old. How ironic, the age when Jess was taken, she closed the door behind her and saw the figure sat up in the bed.

He turned around and brown eyes lay on her, "hello." He said softly, softly and quietly, maybe he was used to midnight visitors. She smiled at him, pleased that the streetlight from outside the window cast enough light so they could see each other.

"Hi," she muttered back, taking one of the seats next to his bed. And that was it, all her talking material already used up. He was a cute boy, he had the wild look she used to have but the thinness of his face and the hollowness emanating from his eyes only added to it, she would have had the crazy thought that he was too young to die, but the simply truth was that she had killed younger ones.

Harsh but true, it was simply the way the world worked, even if it didn't get on the evening news.

"You an angel?" his voice was clear and filled with childish innocence, innocence that was partially tainted by him knowing his fate.

She shook her head, "no, the things I do…" she sighed, "a demon more like."

He looked ruefully at her, "demons aren't as pretty and never sad. My name's Kieran Fenella." He said simply.

"Jessica Thomson," she returned.

He smiled at her and suddenly he seemed years older, an old man in a boy's body, "you're the one my Mum was crying about, they thought I couldn't hear but I could. My Mum's always sad when she thinks about you."

"Sad for all the wrong reasons, she's much better without me."

Kieran shook his head; "Mum doesn't say that, she never leaves her room whenever your birthday passes. She always said that she drove you away, that she never was good enough."

"How do you know all this, you're only a kid," he had the look she had a year after she was recruited, knowing that things weren't the way the rest of the world saw it.

He shrugged, "I just do, they talk when they think I'm asleep and outside the door. When I was little I used to hide a lot," he looked at her, his eyes engulfing her, "I've always known stuff I shouldn't."

"Stuff like what?"

"Stuff they say I'm too young to know, stuff that I shouldn't understand," he looked out the window and back to her, "I'm dying and they still try to pretend."

"I was horrible to her earlier, I didn't want to see her," Jess looked at the small boy, drowned in the adult sized hospital bed, "I'm not the little girl I used to be."

"Did you expect any less? Mum cried until she fell asleep and Dad had to go back home, she thinks it's her fault that you didn't want to see her." she suddenly understood the others fears, how could he be so understanding and only be seven?

"I kill people Kieran," she said it so casually like telling him her star sign, "she wouldn't understand," Jess was sure she didn't either, why the hell was she telling him?

"Dad's a policemen, you better keep away from him then," his face turned serious and she saw shadows under his eyes sharpen, "I don't sleep a lot anymore, I sit up and think, think why Mum has to cry and why I have to be in so much pain. The world doesn't make sense and maybe it's never meant to, you do what you do because you have to and I'm here in this hospital room because I meant to be. Never feel guilty because of what you are, it's just the way it is."

Jess nodded at him, "I can never be friends with Mum, I've moved away from that."

Kieran just shrugged, a strange gesture from someone his age, "tell her, she'll understand… eventually anyway."

"I can't understand how I can be related to you and not feel like running away," she had warmed to Kieran already and would talk it through with the company about the Marrow transplant and all the testing.

"Some people are meant to be friends," he smiled at her and she suddenly wanted to bundle him up and take him away from the harsh realities of the world, "you and me," he told her, "are meant to be brother and sister."

"Big sisters are meant to be responsible and stuff though, if you ever want anything…"

"Presents would be pretty cool."

She smiled at him and stood up and looked to the doorway, no one had moved and it all seemed quiet. "I better go, goodnight Kieran and I'll see you soon, I promise."

He smiled back, "sure, maybe next time in daylight."

She laughed and backed up and slid out of the door and back down the corridor. Maybe she was meant to do this, she might not have a bond with all her family but that didn't mean that she couldn't take a liking to one of them, Kieran was different… out of all of this, he was worth saving.

* * *


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Ryan was awake when she got back and he had simply looked at her from his position on the floor.

"You Ok?"

She nodded at him, realising each time that she lied to him the gap between them grew wider, so much she hadn't told him and it had all started when they'd got released from that cell.

The one thing that had kept them together, even if it wasn't by choice and now that they were out, each time she rebuffed him and made an excuse they were unhooking the little threads that had woven them together until now.

"Just for a walk," a walk up to the cancer ward and to a scarily knowledgeable seven year old, "I needed some air."

He tried to smile at her but it tensed midway and a frown spread over his face.

"Jessica, please?"

And she knew what he wanted, he wanted the truth and it was in her power to tell him everything, to pour out her heart.

She sat next him on the mattress and clutched his hand and squeezed it, "I'm lost Ryan and I don't know what to do."

Her words spoke to him in a way that was instinctive as he wrapped her up in his arms and kissed her hair, he could have said something comforting to her and soothe away her fears, but he couldn't. He didn't have the answers and he wasn't going to fool Jess into thinking that he did, she was too quick for that anyway.

She was too quick and he was too open. Too open, but only to her though, how many times had the others sneered at him for being a soft touch whenever it concerned Jess, even before they were going out. He had been in so many brawls over her, too many that she would never know of and had threatened others so she never would.

It was simple, he loved her too much and he wasn't going to let her go.

"I'm going to be here always, I promise you Jess, I promise."

* * *

Kyle was sure he had a certain skip in his step this morning, Ivy's call last night had left him in high spirits and for the first time in twelve weeks he had slept all the night through. No getting up and walking around and no periods of taking hours just to settle off to sleep.

He was happy of the outcome and couldn't wait to get his plan carried out; all he had to do was take out all the supporting structures from the company one by one. The people that the company wouldn't first notice that badly, a disappearance here, a car accident there and as each structure was taken down he would have the pleasure of seeing the company fall.

Sure they would notice, but that would only be near the end, when the avalanche was on a rolling start and it was too close for them to run out of the way. Take out the people below who ran things and then the people who rallied around for the people on the Board… what would they do then without their little assistants? Take away the miscellaneous and then everything would all start rolling together, for him anyway.

Oh, the joy of deceit and how they would have no idea where it came from.

Amidst his plotting thoughts a figure hurtled around the corner and rammed into him, a ruffle of white hair was all he could see as he looked down.

Mia looked up at him with a mixture of exasperation and relief.

"I've been looking everywhere for you, I tried ringing and everything," her voice moaned at him in her musical way, even in anger her voice was delightful. "I heard about Jessica."

Her head still ached a bit so she knew Jess was still worse off, Gunner had teased her this morning about being a worried munchkin. But she hadn't even told him about the spell and he was one of the closest people to her.

"She's fine, I got a call from Ryan. She'll be discharged this morning, Ryan will be doing an assignment tonight while Jessica rests up."

A frown covered her face, "we're talking about Jessica here, are you sure she'll just sit back and let Ryan do all the work?"

He couldn't help but smile knowingly at her; they hadn't known Jessica for the last eleven years and not get to know her little personality kinks. "Ryan will make sure she rests up, he was really worried about her last night. So there is no way that he will let her do anything and knowing Ryan he'll be like that for the next few days."

Mia smiled back, the ache still there but at least now she was a bit comforted, "he does mother her doesn't he?"

"Indefinitely." Kyle quipped back.

"Good!" Mia backed up and quickly looked down at her watch, "anyway I have to go and see Gunner, he had some stupid car hobby thing that he wants me to look at," she shrugged and rolled her eyes. He stood for a moment as he watched Mia walk off down the corridor and out of sight, now what was he doing? Yes, he remembered now, he was meeting Ivy for lunch where they would go over the first crucial moves.

He clicked his fingers to an old song playing in his head and smiled warmly at some new recruits who scurried passed him. This was going to be the start of a glorious moment in human history where slowly A.S.G would slowly be taken down from within.

He couldn't help musing if his name would be put down in history as the revolutionary of this eventful uprising.

* * *

Jessica coughed midway of drinking her water and spluttered, "Now just repeat that last part."

Kyle's wry smile pulled at something inside of her, she was going to miss him when he went.

"Your next assignment is with Circle Daybreak," he said plainly so Jessica couldn't mistake it.

Ryan sat dutifully quiet beside her, Jess couldn't help but shake her head. In all the years that she had been here she had never heard of any of them being employed by Circle Daybreak, didn't they have a certain moral code?

"So what do they exactly want?"

Kyle opened a file on his desk and started flicking through it, "well they need extra manpower to kidnap a nightworlder…" he looked up at them from the file, his old eyes twinkling, "truthfully I think they need people with experience, who goes for just two extra people as manpower?"

They all fell silent for a moment, Jess had well recovered from her head injury and now a week on she was fine to do another task. She had asked about the marrow transplant and they had authorised it, as long as it all went on in her own spare time, she was going to be tested next week and would find out the test results later.

"So where do we go?"

Kyle looked at her and handed her the file, "it's all in there, write the main details down before you go and leave by sunset, they want the planning to start tonight and the kidnap tomorrow evening."

She couldn't argue any of his points there so she stayed silent and flicked through the file, recording down the address and the head of the operation.

"If things don't go to plan?" Ryan calmly stated.

"Leave at the first chance, I don't want any of you at risk," Kyle said with out a moments thought, the assassins were too precious these days to just sacrifice, especially for Daybreakers.

Jess got up and nodded at Kyle as she left his office, how had they fallen to this? They would be the laughing stock of their year. They could have chosen anyone to conduct this assignment and they had been chosen; she had a deep feeling down in her stomach that someone hated her out there somewhere.

She couldn't help but laugh, now what would the daybreakers think when they saw them?

When they entered the daybreak facility everything was very formal, they were greeted very coldly at the door and made to wait in the reception room as someone went to collect the head of the house. They couldn't help but find it amusing, all types of nightworlders and humans lingered about trying to keep an inconspicuous eye on them.

What did they expect? some evil dark characters who you would have to keep your children away from, things had changed since the medieval time, the whole point of assassins were that you never knew who they were and when they were going to catch up with you, that's why they were trained to act non threateningly.

They had been getting good at it, but still people could tell. You could change your face by spells and change your name by human law but you could never erase the experience that laid in your eyes and that was what gave them away every time, well, only to people who were looking for it.

A woman in her late twenties made her way in the room; she looked to be lamia and had an elegant swing to her gait. She stopped just inside of the door and gave them a penetrating look, Jessica just sighed; she was immune to telepathy and had never been intimidated by any nightworlders and wasn't going to start now.

The woman gave them a stiff smile and made her way into the rest of the room and a couple of paces away from them.

Behind her stood four more people, two vampires and from the looks of it one witch and maybe a human. Maria Cassell stood before them, the women who had been put down in the file to address themselves to. Jess and Ryan stood silent by habit, waiting for the lady to speak, their bags at their feet carrying all their equipment and spare clothes.

"I welcome you into this house," her voice was guarded but Jessica could imagine what it would be like when relaxed, probably pleasant and harmonious, like any other nightworlder. Maria was a beauty as all the rest of her race were but she held a certain dignity in her eyes that Jess was sure many had mistaken for arrogance. Maria knew her place in this world and that was protecting others, however misled her cause was.

"We appreciate your hospitality," Jessica replied politely, Ryan stood beside her silently. Doing his brooding mysterious guy act again, she still couldn't believe how many women still fell for that.

"Now if you would brief us on tomorrows assignment we would be able to help in the strategy of it as soon as possible."

Maria smiled, "straight to the point, I like that," she turned around, "follow me, I'll get some people to take your bags to your rooms."

Ryan finally found his voice, "sorry," he said coldly, "but our stuff goes where we go."

Maria turned around and her blue eyes darkened for a moment, "fine," she said waving her hand, "then these people will come with us as well, I would say it's not because I don't trust you but then I would be lying, in your line of business I would always be wary."

Jessica smiled and followed the lady up the stairs with her bag comfortable over her shoulder, they entered a small room that had been converted into an office, on one side stood a desk and a chair and the other a sofa, it sat two people. So they took the hint and sat down.

Maria took the position behind the desk and looked at them for a moment, "I suppose you know why you've been employed?"

"A kidnapping," Ryan replied as almost bored by it already.

"We need it to look like a kidnapping, our person is a spy in a nightworld establishment. He doesn't even know it yet but we need to remove him. The head of the company know that their is a spy amongst them so we need to take him and make it look like a kidnapping, hopefully they won't come looking for revenge."

"Where will you be kidnapping him from?" they were all the norm questions to ask, Ryan sat languidly silent beside her, Jess knowing he would interject when she missed something out.

"The other side of the city, we have a driver that will lose them if they follow us. All we need you for is to take him so they won't recognise any of us. The point is that you could be employed by anyone so no attention would be drawn to us."

"I would suggest that the target would be moved out of the city as soon as possible," she recommended.

Maria nodded, "that has already been planned, the next morning he'll be escorted into the next state and then on will be in other daybreakers hands."

Jess stayed muted for a second and then the niggling thought arrived, "if the plan is so simply why do you need us the night before?"

Maria sighed, "to familiarise you with the others is the main reason. My counterparts don't feel that comfortable employing someone in your line of work to help us in this particular job, they felt that you aren't trust worthy."

Jess couldn't help but laugh, "I knew there was a bit of animosity in the room, so what do you want us to do?"

"Stay around a bit," Maria suggested, "gain their trust; talk to them. I've tried to tell them we're the ones that's employing you and that you will do the job with us until it's finished, but they don't share my feelings."

"Daybreakers are too used to being hunted," Jess mused aloud, not concerned at all by the indignant shuffle from Maria's guards at the door, "it must be strange for them to be the hunters for once, don't worry we'll be nice to them."

Maria nodded stiffly, "all you need to gain is their trust; friendship has nothing to do with it."

* * *

John Wards believed himself to be a very superior man to everyone else in the company; he took many hours languishing over everyone else's mistakes and then rubbing it into their faces. He had done this to almost everyone, nearly everyone except Kyle Richards.

At first it was fear that had stopped him from carrying out his childish pursuit, Kyle had joined the Company in his mid twenties and over thirties years later he was still here and thriving. He had been a ruthless man in his youth, not considering anyone who gotten into his way as he recruited more of their assassins and dwindled away the weak ones.

He was awed by his skill, John had no idea how to do that and come out successful, but each year he had. And as the years dawdled on Kyle had lost that frostiness about him, but then the fear was replaced with respect as it had for everyone in the company. Kyle had grown wiser in his years and John still had no idea how he had gained it.

And when finally when John, now in his mid fifties as well had gained the courage to dig up all of Kyle's mistakes and rub them in his face, the news of his departure beckoned and the pointlessness of his pursuit stood stark before him.

John had spent most of his life in the power struggle of the company, pulling strings here, making people inequitable disappear there and it had all turned out well for him. But one thing niggled him the most. The people he drew power from didn't even know his name.

He wanted to be recognised by the most dangerous force in the company and that was their assassins, he wanted to be praised and respected, exactly as Kyle was. But as the years drew on he knew the inevitability of it and placed his attention onto someone else.

He frowned and looked at the new memo of the person taking over Kyle's place. Well, if he couldn't control Kyle, then he would have to control his predecessor and what fun that would be.

He picked up the phone and immediately ordered all the information on a Miss Ivy Jenkins.

* * *

Jess lounged in the common room in the daybreak house; Ryan had gone upstairs into their shared room for one of his catnaps. They were going to be directed to different rooms but they had stated that they only needed one.

Insulted Maria had somehow picked up from Ryan's few words that they didn't trust the daybreakers enough to separate.

They had merely shook their heads and plainly told them the truth; they always slept with each other. That's what couples did in relationships, after the initial suspicion they were let off, especially after Ryan's flippant words that if they wanted they could give them separate room but it would only lead Ryan to go wandering about at night when he wanted Jess to be his hot water bottle.

Jess had just laughed as Maria had agreed, hopefully he didn't do that kind of stuff he did with her to his own hot water bottle, imagine the conversations he would have when in therapy?

So she was left on her own, she would have been sharpening one of her knives or practising with her Katana, but the daybreakers were edgy enough and she didn't need them fearing for their own lives right now.

After the first hour a vampire gathered enough courage to sit in the room with her as she watched MTV, she hadn't realised how downhill music had gotten, what had been happening while she spent all those years in training, why was it all crap?

After the first appeared, a small group sat down in the room. Still keeping a minimum distance of about one metre away from Jess but idly yet uncomfortable chatting amongst themselves. She wondered why she bothered sometimes; it wasn't like she needed these people's trust. Ryan and her could do the job fine on their own, who needed daybreakers?

She couldn't help but smile to herself, how could that last part of that sentence be used in how many different contexts? She supposed they were needed though, they helped humans deal with the discovery of the nightworld, she had never real known the full shock of that though. Jess was seven when she found out and kids are more open at that age, well she was and was willing to take anything on board.

Those had been longs years in training, days trailing by, aching with cuts and bruises, even recovering from broken or fractured bones. Life was definitely hard then. A voice made her turn around and she looked at the speaker blankly.

"You're human," he repeated boldly again for her. Jess blinked for a moment, taking the lamia in full perspective,

"well done," she said blandly, "you know I would have never have guessed if you didn't point it out."

"I was only stating a point." He rebuked.

"A very stupid one, if you're going to state something it might as well be interesting," she said dryly.

"You have a big mouth for a human," he spat back, obviously used to people cowering before him.

"And you're very naïve when you insult someone that can slice your gut open in a second," she smiled brightly at him as his brown eyes faltered.

A musical laughter sounded behind, "I can't believe how stupid you are Jal," a witch giggled, "within minutes you go and insult the most dangerous person in the room, what type of flowers do you want for your funeral?"

The lamia, Jal scoffed at the girl and turned away.

"I'm not going to be killing anyone," Jess retorted, annoyed by the daybreakers bickering, "well not until my next assignment anyway," she suddenly said correcting herself.

"Pity," the witch muttered.

Someone nudged forward from the back; just a normal looking guy, most probably human and he sat in the chair opposite than her, nearer than all the rest dared.

He looked as if the same age as her, brown hair, dark eyes and he just sat there, looking at her as if was a weird oddity to admire.

"You looked tired," the boy said, the whole room had quieted and some had already left out of boredom or some other reason.

"I guess you don't get so much sleep going around murdering people," someone muttered from the back, Jess decided to ignore the comment, feeling it was better for their future relations.

"Dreams," she easily drawled, sitting back in the chair, "something everyone has, not only mass murders."

He shrugged, "you realise everyone is afraid of you here, even if you are only human, the Company's record is very notorious."

She should have said some flippant answer where he would think she was really hard and emotionless and they could go on with the charade of the merciless assassin and the haloed daybreaker.

But she was simply tired and didn't care about throwing words anymore, "it's meant to," she said softly, "we do their dirty work and they get the reputation, it's the way it goes."

"It doesn't have to be."

She knew what he was proposing and threw the thought aside straight away, she wouldn't ever allow herself to betray the company, betray her friends. If she ever did they'd be nothing to go home to anymore, there wouldn't be a home.

She shook her head, "it does, we're trained; we know what we do and its not like I could automatically change what I am. I kill people and I enjoy it, simple as that."

His dark eyes seemed to speak to her for a second and her breath caught in her throat, "nothing is ever simple." He told her softly.

"Now what's my sweetie doing?" Ryan's voice screamed through the seriousness and she tore her eyes away and smiled as Ryan sat himself next to her, entwining his fingers with her, "so what did I miss?" he quipped.

* * *


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

They sat in silence in the van, Jess and Ryan talking in low voices. They had been told about the target's routine, in five minutes he would walk down this alleyway with another associate, a lamia with quite a fierce reputation.

They would do it quite casually, Ryan bundling the target into the van and Jess fighting the other guy and at the next moment Ryan would intervene and they would be both off into the van and away. She had warmed to the idea of the little fight, the daybreakers over sympathy and after the unnerving chat she'd had last night she decided she needed to burn off some animosity.

Ryan brushed some hair away from her face and Jess couldn't help but smile at him, they were in a situation where they were meant to be behaving professional, emotions all neatly tucked away, but however much the company had ingrained in them, it was still the little things that kept them sane, made sure they could handle the stuff that they did.

A shuffle started from down the alleyway. It was a quite a dank place, in between two apartment block that cut out about five minutes off the walk if they went around the whole of the block.

Ryan's eyes gleamed silver and a wicked glint settled in them, he held out his hand so she could see and slowly counted down with them, five, four, three, two; one…

The doors swung neatly open and they jumped out, the targets stood stunned there for a moment as they rounded the corner.

"Surprised?" Jess roundhouse kicked the targets companion in the head and he staggered back as Ryan grappled with the Daybreak spy.

And the lamia certainly did look it and he didn't seem to have appreciated her little comment at all.

He blocked a couple of her moves and a telepathic punch that she easily shook off. They were tailing their way down the alleyway. Ryan was still near the van struggling with the spy.

And then he stopped and looked at her amused, "you're being paid for this aren't you?"

Jess couldn't help but smile, "gee and I always thought the money was for being a good girl, don't you know I randomly attack people in the street?" sarcasm oozed out of her voice.

A smirk covered his face, "you're distracting me aren't you?" She checked behind him to the van and noticed that the engine was starting to rev up. She nodded at him, "yep, I'm doing a good job, aren't I?"

"Miraculous!" his voice was as dry as hers and he didn't seem to mind at all about his companion. "You know you're far too good to be doing the job you've got right now."

She raised her eyebrows, "it's called loyalty and you think I'm good you should see the other guys I work with, shouldn't you be worrying about your friend?"

"He'll be back."

He had stunned her with that statement and the van veered by and the door flew open as her head got into gear quickly as she made her self

jump in. She settled next to Ryan and left the lamia behind in the dust that was flying behind them.

A cold felling settled inside of her and she looked from him to the spy sitting opposite her with his Daybreaker friends and she automatically saw the look in his eyes.

Distinct disappointment was there and even though he tried to hide it with a taut smile or a grateful laugh, Jess could still see through it.

He didn't want to be here and through their own relief the Daybreakers couldn't see it. They had a double-crossing agent on their hands, Daybreak or Nightworld; it looked like he had chosen the darker side.

She just shook her head and turned to Ryan, why the hell should she worry about it, it was the daybreakers' problem; they weren't here to detect mutineers, just to do the job they were employed for.

* * *

The phone rang and John picked it up, "Mr Wards, it's Chilton from Research and Archive, the information you requested is being sent up to you this second. All you need to do is sign the release form and the information will all be yours."

"Thank you Miss Chilton," and with that he put the phone down, he had never been a fan of the phone, more interested in the one to one communication, where you can see the agitation on your associates face and nervous twitch in their fingers.

He waited anxiously, his fingers tapping against his desk. He was always had the love for the chase, always wanting to see the humiliation and disgrace swathed on their faces. He looked at his nails and preceded to dig out the dirt underneath them, it always annoyed him when he had calls confirming an imminent delivery.

Because the point was that they weren't always that imminent. The compound was big enough to get lost in and took about twenty minutes to walk just from one side to the other and that wasn't including all the security checks along the way.

The Compound was built on an industrial estate in the early fifties to look like a normal cluster of buildings, entrances to different enterprises and companies with all secret passages hidden within it.

The compound stretched for about a mile, the grey brick walls not at all giving away the secrets that lay within.

Over time the company had become more computerised and security conscious but it still covered itself in its few moral laws that they couldn't even grow out of.

A knock on the door shook John out of his reverie and swore at them to come in.

An office letch hurried in with a note board, scribbling his signature John snatched the folder and motioned the lackey on its way. He had always known his power within the company and always relished in it whenever possible.

Flicking through the papers something caught his attention and he couldn't help but chuckle, now wasn't this a little revelation that the company would receive with open arms. But anticipation settled in his stomach.

There was a rumour that daybreakers had visited Ivy, a rumour but these things were still noted down and filed. All the trivial things, something he was happy over for once.

He started scrambling through the files on his desk; he had a contact in one of the daybreak headquarters. Someone that always came in handy in the end, swearing at him self; he pushed back his chair and kicked his desk. He had left the number at home after another bout of paranoia, something that came regularly now and worsened with each attack.

It was easy enough though, he would just go home and phone him from there, but if he had this correct he would have something at last to rub in Kyle's face. Kyle would be kicked out for his mistake, no retirement money and no friends.

A perfect revenge from a man, whose jealousies had all but taken over his life,

* * *

The air was cool and it brushed gently against Jess's skin as she looked mutely at Mia.

"I was worried about you."

Jess simply looked at her and shrugged, "there was nothing to worry about, Ryan was there to save me."

Mia couldn't help but notice the dryness in her voice, but chose to ignore it. If she wanted her help she would tell her, simple as that.

"It didn't stop me from worrying, do you now how long I had a headache from hell for?" she shook her head and decided to pace.

They had ended up at Jess's place, after wandering out of the compound together. Jess was agitated, the options were that she was going to tell her what was wrong or her head was going to explode, Mia didn't want to be around for the exploding bit.

"I don't know where he is."

Mia head snapped up and she couldn't hide her puzzlement, "what do you mean?"

"I mean Ryan," her head dropped back melodramatically, her long black mane of curls washing back after her. She sat transfixed staring at her ceiling.

Knowing that this was going to be a long conversation, Mia made herself comfortable but couldn't help but sigh, "You don't know where he is, like what? Emotionally? Physically? Spiritually?"

Jess's head snapped back up, her eyes tired with Mia's misunderstanding, "he goes out and we made a deal a long time ago, I mean we made it when we first became friends. It was simple, we all had our secrets and we weren't going to push each other so we could find out what they were. He goes out, like maybe three times a week for about three, four hours at a time and I have no idea where he goes, I'm getting worried."

"Why should you be, Ryan loves you. We all know that, Ryan is devoted to you."

"That's what I'm worried about, what if he doesn't love me anymore?"

"Do you realise how stupid you're being?" Mia couldn't help but feel jealous of her; she had all the things she wanted. Having to deal with the things they did in their jobs made you want someone there at the end of the day, someone you knew wouldn't leave you once they found out what you'd been doing.

"I can't help it."

"Yes you can," Mia had to keep down the irresistible temptation just to slap some sense into her. "Ryan has eyes for no one but you, ask him where he goes to and if not trust him, you love him that much, give him that little gift."

"Trust is a big thing."

She couldn't help but laugh, "Jessica you trust him with your life every time you go out on an assignment, all those years we were in training and we had to choose whose hands we were going to put our lives into. You always chose Ryan," Mia paused for a moment as a dry smile curved on her lips, " and he always chose you."

Jess laughed and shook her head, "I'm just being stupid."

"I know," Mia dodged a slap, "so tell me all then."

"I went in for that bone marrow test yesterday, but I won't know for a while yet." She shook her head, "Kieran's sweet, I have to admit. But I just hope I don't have to see my Mum at all."

Mia just nodded, she already knew the big thing she had against her

Mum and just left it at that, "so apart from that, I mean the mistrust with Ryan, the ill brother and the mother who you can't stand whose just appeared from underneath the woodwork. Any other little surprises?"

"Mia my life is not funny, it just has a habit of being jam packed."

"Well I wish…"

A knock at the door interrupted them and Jess made her way towards it.

"It's Gunner," Mia announced even before she opened the door.

With her hand on the doorknob Jess turned around and looked at her, "how do you know?"

Mia smiled at her, "because he just told me."

Jess shook her head as she opened the door, "you telepaths, you do make me uneasy, you do know that right?"

Gunner swan passed her, kissing her on the forehead on the way, "of course we do love," he added making his way to sit next to Mia on the sofa, shaking her head Jess shut the door and went back to her seat.

"So why have you come to torment me?"

Gunner just smiled at her, he had known her too long to be insulted, "actually I was looking for Mia and since you're here…"

"Since I live here," Jess indignantly interjected.

"Well, because of that I thought why not go see my two favourite ladies at once."

"Creep," Jess muttered, just loud enough so he could hear it.

"Better to be a creep then a letch!"

His smile seemed to be infectious as Jess shook her head, "you know what? I'd be really insulted if I knew what the hell a letch was."

He yawned, tapping his hand over his mouth sardonically, "You're boring me," he stated and turned to Mia. "So how is my precious doing?"

Jess watched as Mia smiled and leant back against the couch, seemingly as far back as she could go, "the same as I was this morning," she dryly cooed and flicked his ear with her fingers, "why is the munchkin here?"

"Less of the insults please," he grieved back, Jess sat back amazed at such the easy attitude towards each other.

They had known each other as long as Ryan and herself, but hadn't clicked with the friendship as they had. They had been simply teamed up because the Company had thought it was best, a female with a male as it always had been. Sure in Japan they had helped each other out and especially in the short time Jess had been dating him, Mia was her best friend and of course they would have become friends.

But she never really expected the same relationship she and Ryan had to be seen in the rest of the partners in her group, she supposed that why she refused to take any notice of them. In her mind their relationship had to be special, especially after all the things they had been through. But hadn't all the rest been through that as well? What made those two special, Jess being human wasn't enough.

She shook her head and watched Gunner drag Mia out of her chair, "we have to go my dear, you going to be all right without your lover boy here?"

"Please just leave," she said more tiredly than she meant, maybe things were just getting on top of her?

Mia came up and hugged her before they marched off to the door, "if you need me?" Mia had always been the one with the big heart; Jess had always wondered how she had dealt with her conscience at the end of the day.

"I'll call you," she promised as she watched the two leave and shut the door behind them.

Sometimes she just wished that she didn't what was going on, stay in that nice bittersweet innocence that was laced with naivety. At least that way her mind would be at rest and she wouldn't have to doubt.

Doubt Ryan's intentions and about what was going on.

* * *

John smiled to himself, he had called the Daybreak spy as few hours ago now and had sat in a blissful state of smugness for even longer, only coming out of it to give Kyle a ring, invite him over and tell him the ever important information.

He would be here soon, John just hoped that Kyle would beg, beg for it to be covered up so he could get rid of Ivy himself, but where would the fun be in that? He had always wanted an excuse to get at

Kyle and this was the perfect opportunity.

The doorbell rang and he made his way slowly to the door, Kyle was always the one for over confidence, but he could get his dues now, everything he deserved for being who he was, for being someone he could never be.

The door opened and Kyle stood before him, a man who now must be in his mid fifties, for someone who was so popular around the compound he had a nasty habit of keeping things to himself and no one seemed to notice, no one but John.

He couldn't help but criticise the man before he let him in, he had aged like all the rest. But unlike all the rest he had let nature take it's course, grey hairs had ruffled through silken brown and wrinkles had settled around grey eyes, even as old age had taken it's grip on him he still held that persona about him, a persona that made people flock to him in droves.

Kyle walked past him with ease knowing the house already by all the constant company business parties held there, John liked his life being carried out in style and things like that only showed people the extent of it. He led the way through the house and the elegant hallways and to his office; things he'd rather not work on in the compound were done here, mainly for secrecy but also for the comfort of knowing that in one way or another he wasn't being watched.

They both sat down, Kyle with his nerves in shreds, knowing how deceitful and scheming John was and waiting for the expectant blows that he knew he would receive. And always ready though, he knew that he couldn't have his plan come to light, not now.

His resolve was shattered when he heard John's conniving voice, he sat there though, his face clear of anything and his hands in his pockets.

"I've researched into that little assistant of yours, Ivy Jenkins." The statement was flat, but Kyle knew what he meant. John only did research on people when he knew that he could get some dirt.

"She's my replacement John, not my assistant."

John waved his hand dismissively, not caring in the way he had described her, too eager to get to the juicy bit. Kyle's hand tightened in his pocket.

"She's more than you think old man, whoever thought that you wouldn't be able to spot a spy of all things? Now what will the company think? Because of course they will have to know." Kyle could already see the pleasure that John was getting out of this, he cleared his throat, "and I guess that you'd be the one that would take pleasure in telling them?"

"Only doing my job Kyle."

Kyle nodded at him and stood up and started pacing, knowing that John would think he was agitated for a whole different reason, he stopped for a moment and looked at him, "does anyone else know?"

He shook his head, "only me, you and these four walls, you know me, I always keep these things to myself until the time arises."

Kyle nodded and looked at him, "yes, until the time arises. I'm sorry John."

"What? For your stupid mistake, no I'm not the one you should be apologising to, you've got the board of directors for that and anyway…"

"That's not what I'm apologising for," Kyle interjected as he withdrew the gun from his pocket, "but I guess you know nothing of the things I've made sure will be carried out and I can't risk anything going wrong."

John's face paled and he seemed to age ten years, "Don't be absurd, you can't do this. The company…"

"The Company will never know it was me, shoot you, burn down the house and no one suspects, why should they? I'm just an old guy nearing early retirement and all these rival companies, there's handfuls to pick from."

"You wouldn't dare."

A tired smile spread across his face, "watch me," he stated as he pulled the trigger.

The shot echoed around the house and within seconds everything stilled.

Cringing Kyle looked away from the blood and brain splatter against the wall and thanked John for his paranoia and privacy as he went back into his car and stepped out into the middle of no where.

He picked up the gasoline tins from his car and started spreading it evenly around the house, dousing John's body in the remaining liquid.

He would never forgive himself for committing this act of murder, yet he knew that he would never regret it though. Things had to go as planned and nothing would get in his way, old friends or not, these things had to happen.

And these thoughts stayed in his head with conviction, even as he flicked the matchstick from the front of the house into the hallway and watched the flames lick up the walls.

* * *


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Mia yawned and turned off the TV with the remote, "now that was really bad." She pointed out to Gunner as they sat curled up on the couch next to each, his arm sprawled out on the back of the chair.

He just shrugged, "it was an action film, what did you expect? He fought a lot of bad guys, had sex with the beautiful woman, killed the evil mastermind and went off into the sunset with his sex goddess behind him."

She couldn't help but laugh, "you know when you put it like that it's not such a hard decision for me to ban you from choosing another movie ever again."

"Thanks sweetie, I hate having to do that."

She sighed and the room fell into silence. The events of the last few days had laid heavy upon everyone in the company, why Wards and who would be next? The film had been a welcome distraction, a habit they had accumulated and had taken part in once a week, something trivial to distract them from the truth.

"What would you do if anything happened to me?"

Gunner inhaled a shuddery breath, he knew what she meant, John Wards body laying crisp and blackened in the mortuary compound had only reminded them of their own mortality and the risk of death on every assignment.

His hand tightened on the cushions behind her, "I don't want to think about it, if I don't think about it hopefully it'll never happen."

She suddenly felt like hugging him, reassuring him but shook the feeling off, "you're being unrealistic, I'm only a witch. My lifeline is so much more shorter than yours."

He snatched his arm back from behind her and jumped to his feet, his grey eyes wide and far too vulnerable, "please Mia? I, I don't think I could handle losing you."

"It happens," she calmly told him, how could he be so scared over such a trivial thing?

"Don't you think I know that? We see it every time we go out on an assignment, but you, us. It's the only stable thing I've ever known. I don't, I wouldn't be able to handle losing you. And anyway," he choked, "what would you do without me? It could happen… what about that lovely family of yours?"

"You mean the family that think I'm dead? I don't think they'd want my skills," she had set her eyes on the family that she could only recall from long buried memories last year. They had moved on, like anyone else would, when she was younger a lot of people had a thing against the Harmans and a disappearance of one of their children could only later be put down to them being murdered.

So it was simple, except for the people in the company she was alone, except for Gunner and Jessica, who else would she have after that?

And he understood what she had said, her skills. What would the Harmans want with the skills of killing? Even when her time with the Company would draw to a close where would she go? The company had made sure that they would never fit in anywhere else. So this was it, it was all they had.

"You have other skills," he soothed to her gentle as he sat down next to her again and put his arm round her shoulder, "you're beautiful, loving and gentle and the bestest friend that anyone would ever need."

She smiled and sat back, "you're just a charmer." He shook his head, "no, I just tell the truth is all, that's the appeal."

And she stayed silent, she couldn't disagree with that, Gunner was someone she could always rely on for the harsh truth, even if it helped or not.

"I've got a bad feeling Gunner, a really bad feeling," her voice was soft and hushed, she was scared and she didn't even know why.

"A Vision?"

She nodded and took his hand in hers; he knew what she was doing and opened his mind. An awash of fears and screams filled his psyche while rushed; blurred images swam in front of his eyes.

He took a shudder of breath and reached out instinctively for Mia, she went into his embrace and tried to close her mind off to his fear. And he could give her nothing to comfort her but an empty promise, "everything will be alright," he soothed stroking back her hair, "and if not," he said eventually, "I'll be here."

* * *

Kyle paced around his office, his mind racked with the last few moments of John's life and he was still waiting for the shock of reality to hit him anytime soon. He stilled and took a deep breath, unnerved by his lack of guilt. He had done what was needed, what would only have brought his plan down, but in the end was it worth the loss of a man's life.

He nodded to himself agitated again. He had done it for Jessica so she could go back to her world, the human world, for Ryan who's family had gone to such extent to get him back not so long back and all of the others.

He could drum out long individual reason for each of the recruits and why he was doing it for them, especially for the ones who had been here too long, who had no life except the company. A place that only used them for their own personal whims, they didn't deserve this.

He sat himself don, surveying his office for the very last time before he left for the final time tonight. Officially anyway, the Company had let him retire on the grounds that he still surveyed the new recruits that went into the compound, something that he could mainly do from home.

The last few weeks had all built up to this day, the day when he could leave everything behind, leave the Company behind that had controlled his life for so long, ruined and destroyed all the chances that he could have had of a real life.

Taking a shuddery breath in he packed the few last remaining things from his desk and sat back in his chair.

He was taking a big step here, walking away from a life that had been ingrained in him for so long. So if this was such a big day, why did he feel so bad?

* * *

Jessica walked around Ryan's house bored. They normally stayed around her house but on a personally whim last night, Ryan had made them trek their way over here. She had woken up this morning with an unusual grogginess, having no idea where she was.

Ryan lying next to her was the only comfort she was given as her mind slowly woke up. She hated it in his place, everything seemed just so impersonal, he had perfected the minimalist concept to perfection and she wandered around, Ryan watching her with amusement as she tried to bite down the urge to move things and create some clutter.

The phone rang and Jess sighed, Ryan only got calls from either her or the Company on his home phone so she now had hope. He smiled at her as he picked up the phone and laid himself expertly on his couch, having no idea how much like a feline he looked all stretched out.

"Sure," he muttered, "We'll be there as soon as possible," he scribbled down something and put down the phone. She looked at him expectantly, seeing a moment to be annoying he ignored her and went into his room to get changed.

She followed him in, smiling deviously, "Ryan come on, I know that was an assignment and you know how agitated I get when you wind me up like this." His grin widened, she solved the problem by jumping on him and refusing to let go.

"Ok, ok," he screeched as he dragged her across the room, "we have an assignment, happy?" she decided it was better if she didn't reply, he already knew how bored she was. "We have to go into the city, a warehouse, something about a kidnapping."

She smiled at him and followed him into his bedroom in silence and watched him push aside his bed and open the trapdoor that was hidden beneath. A selective array of weapons lay there, they casually picked the best suited and changed into their ninja wear, they did it all in silence, all preoccupied with what they had to do.

The thing was that Jessica was a bit confused, how come the Company had phoned up on such short notice and why weren't they being asked to report in so they could be briefed on their assignment. But they had told Ryan the address and knowing him, the suspect as well. She shook off the feeling and put it down to lack of sleep. She followed Ryan down to the car, the rucksacks of weapons on their shoulders.

If it were up to Ryan they would have been riding in a fast car to their assignment with most probably some flashy paintwork. But the Company had its policies and being inconspicuous was one of them, black was a standard, it was lucky they weren't in a bigger group; it was so uncomfortable riding about in those black vans.

Another luxury of the job that's no one has ever brought up, none of the 'I'm an assassin and I have to sit in a really uncomfortable car/van and I get cramp more times then you can possible imagine,' it wasn't exactly the first thing you mentioned when you met people. She turned to Ryan as they climbed into the car and he started the engine and drove out of the building's parking lot.

As always day had turned into dusk without them realising it. Soon darkness would cloak them and help them along, Jessica had been bewitched so many times over the years she was beginning to doubt which parts were actually natural. One to see in the dark, another to hide her life force, another to heighten her senses and so many more over the years, she continually wondered why the company had kept her over the years, she was still in doubt if she would have to pay for it all or if it was a company gift, an investment more like.

They stopped outside an ugly building, no more than ten minutes away and Ryan turned to her, a grim smile on his face. "You alright?" She shrugged, "shouldn't I be?"

A wry smile, "Everything's going to be fine," he said turning away, "just fine."

Was he saying to comfort Jessica or just him?

She shook her head and got out after him, collecting her stuff. The building was ugly and that was an understatement. Grey, rusting metal covered the outside in hideous segments, rust and dirt clung to it. The big windows were all shattered, where the glass had wired mesh inside it, it now hung over the side menacingly, like a demonic climbing plant.

She couldn't keep the shudder in as she followed Ryan into the warehouse, keeping close to his back and searching every corner as she entered.

"Ryan?" she whispered, not liking the silence.

She gasped as something stabbed into her shoulder, reaching for it she pulled something out, a metal sedation dart lay in her hand, all she could do was blink as she felt it kick in, "this is getting too much," was all she could handle to say as she collapsed against the hard ground.

* * *

Mia gasped as Gunner looked perplexed as her as he sat beside her, his hand went instinctively to her shoulder and if an instant connection had been made between their minds Mia could feel the sedative seep into their bloodstreams.

She had to keep on blinking to keep her consciousness together, "Jessica," was all she could mutter as she fell back against the couch unconscious.

* * *

When Jess awoke, she was in a cold cement cell and it took her a few minutes to realise that this wasn't one of her dreams and that this was all happening again. And worse this time, Ryan wasn't anywhere in sight.

She panicked at first, banged on the door, swore at the guards and as she slowly got her self control back again she started to still and put the situation together in her head.

This was the second time in 6 weeks so the same people had probably taken her but Ryan wasn't here though, but that could mean many things. They could either be interrogating him now, be in a separate cell or to the painful truth he could be dead.

She didn't like the thought of the latter but her training at the Company had made her preview all the perspectives. The scary thought now was that if they were the same people from last time they probably wouldn't be as stupid and the escape wouldn't be as easy.

They had left her alone for three hours in that cell, the guards silent outside, when they did come. There were six guards and all were armed.

They pushed into a small room down the corridor; the only difference from the other one was that this one had a table and two chairs, both of the chairs facing each other.

They pushed her down into one of the chair and let her wait there for a few minutes; her eyes didn't leave the table as she slowly took in all of the guards' weaknesses as they parried around her.

Eventually a man came in, from his stance some type of leader,nodding at a couple of guards to take their leave he made sure they shut the door behind them and in consequence he took the other chair before her.

Jessica stared at the man, her eyes as always intimidating; the man sat opposite her confident enough. He had good reason to be, she had two guards beside her and one behind her, a nice knife pointed to the back of her neck.

Her eyes didn't shift an inch, "I'm going to enjoy snapping your neck." She hissed.

The man smiled, "it won't kill me."

She shifted forwards in her seat and the guards scrambled forward with their weapons, "but I bet it'll hurt," she added maliciously.

The man chuckled, he was nightworld and from his mannerisms he was lamia as well. A lamia that had stopped aging in his mid-twenties, he had the looks for sure, the dark eyes, the Latino tan but he was just as a danger to her as the rest.

"Feisty aren't you?" he leant back in his chair relaxed, "but I suppose you had to be, especially when you were the only human training amongst the rest."

He looked blatantly for her reaction, her face gave nothing away neither did the tendrils of thoughts he was keeping his mind open for. She was a picture of composure and the only thing that beckoned in her mind was the care she had to take, this man knew maybe more than she could fathom.

"And well trained as well and especially for a human, do you know how many hunters we've broken in here?"

A reckless laugh ruptured, she didn't really care. She had separated herself from the human race a while ago now and what was done to them didn't really affect her, a cruel smile curved, "did they scream?" She was playing her own game now and it was working. The lamia sat up straight, unnerved.

He could see though what she was playing at, "we've been keeping an eye on you two, you're both very promising." She finally leant back, her escape already riffling through her mind, "well thank you, I'll have to tell that to the Company when I next see them."

He was riled now, "I assure you that won't be happening."

She stood up, the guards shifting with her. Always behind her, always ready but always that just second behind. They were obviously not as well trained as her self, if Ryan was here he would already had said that he could smell the fear on them.

She ducked, elbowed the one behind her in the groin and sweep kicked the ones to her side to the floor, she caught the knife that flew out of the first's hand and satisfyingly slit across his neck with it, with the others she simply picked up her wooden chairs and knocked them both out with it. She stood there smiling at the Latino who stood there stunned, the broken bits of the chair leg in her hand, an impractical stake but she would make do.

She watched him as he stumbled back, in an odd feeling of pity she jumped over the table and hit him across the head with it in a sharp blow, his head would definitely be aching for a couple of days. They hadn't locked the door and there were only two guards outside of it, their backs to her. Inwardly sighing at their stupidity she hit them across the back of the head and stepped over them

She stood in the silent corridor for a moment, trying to guess in what direction Ryan would be in. She decided on her right and followed the corridor down, listening out for the voices and trying to stay in the shadows as much as possible. She didn't have a real weapon, except the makeshift chair leg in her hand, but as long as she kept to her instincts, she should be able to somehow make it out of this place a live.

She stiffened and flattened herself against the wall as she heard raised voices; she had made her way out of the cell area a few seconds ago, checking all of the cells on her way. Releasing some other prisoners too on the condition that they made their way out silently, they had all readily agreed and headed out in the opposite direction.

She was going to rush the other way when she heard Ryan's voice amongst the others, but why was he here? Why not in the cells like she was? She neared to the door so she could define the voices a bit more; see why he was there and not where he should have been.

"Mother," that was definitely Ryan's voice and he was angry, "I'm not going to leave Jessica here, it wasn't what we agreed upon."

Agreed upon, what did he mean?

"Ryan, don't be silly." Jessica remembered his mother's voice from last time, something that was so at odds with each other. One moment soft and the next superior and patronising, "we won't leave her altogether, we'll come back for her but everything's been planned we have to go into hiding now."

"I can't leave her," his voice was steely and he wasn't giving in, "Dad, you must understand what I'm saying."

A man sighed, "son, I'll never understand, she's human. But if you love her, if you can convince her to leave with you by tonight she can come."

There was silence and suddenly Ryan yelled in frustration, she had heard it all too many times before to be concerned and stood transfixed in disbelief.

"None of you understand, Jessica has loyalties and she's not like me, she won't break them for selfish reasons," something thudded and all she could guess was that Ryan was taking out his anger on the furniture.

"Then make her," most definitely his Dad this time, "we've been planning this far too long now for it to be delayed." She neared the door and put her palms against the polished foot, fascinated that it was the only thing between them.

"Lie to her if you have to, but either way we're leaving tonight. With or without your human girlfriend, you understand son."

Silence again.

"I'll go see her…"

And before she could move out of the way the door opened and Ryan stood before her.

* * *


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifthteen

She stood there frozen and no matter what her brain told her, screamed at her, she couldn't move. Her muscles had locked. She stared at Ryan in disbelief, why… why was he here when he was supposed to be somewhere else, somewhere else where he was being tortured and hurt?

She was meant to save him and then they were meant to go off and feign normality again. But this, how was she meant to deal with this and come out sane?

So she did the only thing she could do in a situation like this, she kicked him in the shins, muttered, 'bastard,' at him and ran off, she only got a little way down the corridor before he caught up with her and pinned her against the wall. She should have kicked him again or twisted her way out but she couldn't, her brain didn't even want to function.

She found herself looking into the eyes of a stranger, where had her Ryan gone, where was the person who told her everything?

"Jessica, calm down ok? Calm down," he soothed her as he leant down and rubbed his shin.

Her eyes went cold and she bit down on her lip stopping herself from saying what she really wanted.

"Good," Ryan looked her up and down and sighed, "good," but he knew it wasn't, Jessica was looking at him like an livid cobra just about to strike, unpredictable and angry.

They stayed there in silence for a couple more minutes, examining each other for flaws, in the end it was Ryan who broke, "Jessica, please talk to me, just say anything, please?"

"You lying bastard."

He paused for a second, "ok, maybe not those exact words."

"Scum."

He shook his head; "you're being irrational, if you would just see my side of things."

She looked at him silently brooding and Ryan knew from experience that he wasn't going to have an easy ride, "come on," he pulled her by the arm and she let him lead her to a room down the hall.

If this scene wasn't surreal enough she would have been more alarmed that people, some even armed were walking past them, looking at Ryan and carrying on like it wasn't anything from the norm, she wondered if they had noticed the half empty cells yet.

He closed the door behind her and Jess looked around, pleased not to have to look into his pleading eyes again, she didn't want to think right now, everything was being rammed into her brain a million miles a second while in the meantime everything was clicking together.

Ryan's long walks, his ominous silences and the phone call this morning, no wonder she couldn't stop the suspicion from working its way to the surface. This had been a set up from the beginning; all she had to work out now was how long he'd been planning it for.

But did she really want to know?

He'd already broken that special part inside of her that used to be them, what would happen to the rest once she heard more of his lies. "Jessica?"

She didn't turn around; this room was like most in this place. Concrete; something for her to pretend to be looking at, anywhere else that wasn't Ryan. He should have said something earlier, this? She never wanted anything like this. But the point was what would she have done?

Do something she didn't believe in and run away with Ryan or simply stay silent letting it gnaw away inside of her as she watched him walk away. She wouldn't be able to talk to Kyle about this, not even Mia, Ryan would be executed on the quad near the training grounds. His fate exactly the same as all the other failed recruits over the years.

"Jessica, please?" he was pleading again and all she could do was turn around and look into his face, now she understood how she could have fallen in love with him and be blind to everything else in the process. It wasn't just the look, even though many had fallen over themselves with it over the years, it was the intensity in his words.

When he said he loved her and promised her things, she knew deep down he meant it by the passion in his voice and the look in his eyes, had that all been a game to him, had he ever told her the truth?

"Leave me alone," words just slipped out, she was tired and suddenly very old, why had she gotten into this. Why was he out of all the recruits the one she fell in love with?

But she didn't need anyone to answer her because she already knew the answer, which made his betrayal hurt even more.

They were meant to be together, meant to support each other down the years and they had. It had worked out but now was the time for that hiccup, now the time for the mistrust and deceit to leak out.

"I can't."

She turned around at his words and silently wished that she had a God to believe in, a God that could make this all go away. Why her? Why not just another simple human girl who didn't have so much to lose, for once in her measly life, why couldn't even one thing go right for her?

"I hate you."

"No you don't."

Tears flooded down her face, tentative hands came and reached out that she slapped away, she didn't need anything from him. Why had she only minutes ago loved him beyond life itself and now she couldn't even look at him? Her back found the cold wall as she slowly slid down it and ended up with her hands wrapped around her knees.

"Why?"

"This?"

She nodded, he stilled for a second and looked at her as if she was going to suddenly disappear, panic etched in his eyes, "because I love you, because we can't go on like this."

"We were fine."

His eyes burned, "but we were dying inside."

* * *

Mia gingerly moved her arms again, looking at them like they were no longer hers. Her whole body ached, Gunner wasn't in a good state either but his metabolism was already speeding away and sorting through all the creaks and pains.

What the hell was happening to Jess? She had phoned the Company as soon as she had reached consciousness and they had rung back an hour later. Ryan and Jessica's place was deserted, Ryan's weapon supply had also been accessed, whatever was going on it wasn't good and there was no way that Mia was in any state at all to help out.

Not only her body ached but also ten minutes ago a rush of emotions started to burn through her body. Eventually she had to tell Gunner about her and Jessica's little spelled connection, it was the only way to explain herself, what else was she going to say?

Now she couldn't stop shaking, irrational panic rushed through her, panic and betrayal. This had never happened before; sure they had shared their physical injuries in the past but emotions? Until now she had thought that was impossible but she could feel Jess's leak into hers and whatever was happening was definitely bad, tears suddenly spilled from her eyes.

Gunner knelt beside her concerned and wiped the tears away, she quickly rushed into his arms, looking for comfort she knew that Jessica wasn't getting. She would have to pray for her, but the thing was, who was there left to pray to?

* * *

He stilled and looked at her, almost pleading, "Jess I can't do this anymore. I have to go."

And what could she say? Scream at him, lash out at him, but it would mean nothing in the end and she would be left there as hurt as she was before. "I never thought I'd hear you say that."

He had the dignity to look down, "after everything, after the isolation for that fight in the compound, that cell and then us… I had a lot of stuff to work through…"

She stood herself up, trying to gather the last of her dignity, "something your parents had to help with I guess," from that first meeting she had held bristling distrust towards the duo.

"It's not just me Jess, it's us. Look at us, all we are, are their lapdogs. Running back and forth and carrying out their dirty work."

She looked at him baffled, "exactly what we were trained to do and something a month back you were fine with, what have they done to you Ryan?"

"They have done nothing!"

She recoiled from him and his outburst and backed away.

"Jessica, all I want is us to be free, all I want is us to be together."

"You're insane, they've brainwashed you."

"They opened my eyes!"

All she could do was shake her head and try not to look so blatantly disgusted, " I knew something was going on. You going out on your own for all that time and coming back silent and brooding and I didn't say a thing about it because I trusted you and thought you just needed time alone. I actually thought that our relationship went so far that if anything was really wrong that you would come out and tell me."

"I'm telling you now."

"No Ryan," she snapped, "you aren't. If I hadn't escaped from that guy, what would you have done? Let them brainwash me too or let me think you were a victim like me and slowly make me turn sides; this was a glitch in your plans. You had no thought about telling me."

"I would have in the end."

"Ryan, my life isn't as long as yours, what would you have been telling me on my deathbed or as I got attacked by another ninja gang. You've betrayed the Company!"

His eyes darkened and his stance stiffened, "is that all you care about?"

"No, I care about the people in there. What about Mia? Gunner? Hira? Are you just going to forget about them or aren't they important enough? We made a promise to each other a long time ago, all of us. Have you forgotten that already?"

"No, you know I haven't."

"Then why this?"

He paused as if he hadn't even heard her question and looked up at the cracking ceiling.

"I woke one morning to find that I no longer knew who I was, that the people around me were strangers…" as she was just about to open her mouth in protest he overrode her and smiled, "all except you of course. But it wasn't enough, even though I tried to convince myself of it I could no longer accept the lies, I was alone and I wasn't pliable enough anymore for the Company's lies to convince me of its purpose."

"They'll hunt you down."

Ryan nodded and sighed heavily, "It's the only way."

"Only way for you, you mean."

He nodded at that too, somewhere deep inside he knew that Jessica would stand up for the Company even if it was against someone like him, someone she had promised to love forever. It was a pity that their forever hadn't lasted that long.

"Come with me, we'll be happy and do whatever we want."

She looked at him coldly, deciding that whatever had happened over the last few days Ryan was no longer the person she thought she knew, how could she have let herself share her bed with him?

"I am happy," she lied, "and you know in the end I would grow to hate you for taking me away from the life the I've known no different from. You'd re-immerse yourself within your family and I would be left on the outside, having nothing to do, becoming a shadow. I kill, that's what I live for and that's what I'm good at."

"But it's wrong!"

"And it's taken you that long to realise it? Of course it is, that's why people like us have to do it, we're different, the proof of it is that we're still alive. Not a stain on the old training grounds. I can't go back to what I was and neither can you, however much you try to convince yourself of it."

"I'm not trying to convince myself of anything, all I'm doing is facing up to reality."

She shrugged, "everyone's reality differs."

He nodded and headed towards the door his hand hovering over the handle; he turned back around again, "are ours that different?"

"The way I see," she nodded glumly, "the path we used to take together has forked and we've both gone our separate ways."

"But I love you."

"I know, I love you too but I don't trust you anymore and even worse I'm not even sure if I know you. In the end I'd get tired of having to keep looking over my shoulder, as exactly as you will."

And he stood and looked at her, trying to memorise her every feature, the hue of her eyes and the way her hair curled and fell down her back in an oceans of black waves. But the most important was the look in her eyes; he would remember this moment when all he could see was the disbelief and hopelessness in there.

Whatever he'd convinced himself of in the past, now wasn't one of those situations, no matter what he told himself whatever he and Jessica had was well now over. No longer the goodnight kisses and the long silent nights of secrets.

He tried to muster up at least some feelings of betrayal or anger, but as soon as they were built up they would instantly collapse as he looked within her eyes and realised what he had done to her. He was leaving her, the person he had known since he was seven, someone he had instantly latched onto, secretly leaching strength off of her while on the outside it seemed that it was the other way round.

What would he do now, without her?

He nodded to himself and sighed, "so this is a goodbye?"

"Yeah, I'll wait a couple of days to tell the Company. Hideout somewhere and say I escaped, at least give you a good running start."

"I won't need it."

She didn't believe him; very few had run from the Company and survived.

So they stood there at separate sides of the room, a wedge of ice now between them. And the words seemed to have disappeared, what could they say? They had betrayed each other in each of their own ways, now there was no way to explain their way out of this. This had to be the end, the end and now maybe some sort of beginning.

"I'll tell these guys you can leave."

She nodded, trying to decide where to go. "Goodbye Ryan."

And that was it, he nodded and turned around and headed out of the room, shutting it behind him. She was left inside there alone, a new emptiness filling inside of her; she had loved him hadn't she? She still loved him and she was letting him walk away.

Letting him? She had made him more like.

But none of this made any difference, this was all for a reason, all she had to do now was find it or at least convince herself of it.

* * *


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Making her way out of the building was easier then expected, she waited ten whole minutes after Ryan's little departure, wiped the tears away and headed out of the door. She headed the way she was going originally; head up high, letting the anger infuse her.

She passed the door where she had heard Ryan yapping away the first time, where he had come out and found her standing there in disbelief. All she could do now was fasten her pace as she passed it, she had a personal whim just to check if he was still in there but all she had to do was remind herself of his betrayal and the whim was yanked back down back to where it was before.

A cold blast of air hit her as she got out into the night air, in a rare moment the sky seemed to clear as she stood dumbfounded at the beauty that lay above of her, the moon was at it's most striking as its bright rays settled around her. She shook her head, wondering how everything around her could continue when her heart had been torn to shreds and the only person she had lived for all these years had now walked out of her life. So why was she still living?

She continued walking, slinking into the shadows whenever she could, she still worn all her black ninja gear from earlier so the task was easy, even if her mind wasn't concentrated on it. She still couldn't understand how all this could have happened, why wasn't there any warning that Ryan wasn't happy, why hadn't he told her? Hadn't he loved her enough?

But she knew deep down he had, he had asked her to go with him hadn't he? But she had turned him down, down for what? This life, but she enjoyed this life.

No, that wasn't exactly true; this life was the only one she knew.

What did he expect her to say? He wanted her to give up everything, just to go on the run with him and his family, the family that hated her, hated her for being human. If it was a minor detail maybe she could have overcome it and even become friends with them, but she couldn't change what she was born to and she wasn't going to let any nightworlder try to change her either.

She had lived too long in their world already and unlike them she wasn't afraid of her mortality. She'd rather be like herself than having to live with the lies and secrets that they had to hold themselves in. she'd had enough of those already.

So now she was going to be alone, the thought seemed to strangle the oxygen out of her for a second. Making her struggle for breath as she realised the hell she was walking into. No one to tell her that they loved her; that they'd be there for her, all the secrets that had been told and promises that had been made were all now for nothing.

He wasn't here and a crushing blow had been struck, how was she going to survive, how was she going to breath with out him, why hadn't she just excepted and walked away with him hand in hand?

But he had betrayed her; she knew that, he had been lying to her for weeks, even months maybe. So while she was worrying about him, thinking it was her he had been scheming and planning all this. She had thought that he had loved her, loved her so that they would never have lies. No lies so they never had to be apart.

She stopped and shuddered. There was no going back, she knew she had to realise that. All this had happened for a reason, even if she didn't like the outcome.

She brushed the last few tears away, shook all the painful thoughts out of her head and headed home, where she would pack her bags and leave to go back to the compound, back to where she would feel safe, feel safe and be as far away as possible from the memory of Ryan.

She could do this; all she needed now was the will to keep on going.

* * *

Kyle heaved a heavy sigh and looked across at Ivy as they sat in the empty coffee shop. In any other situation Kyle would have been wary but this one was special he had the upper hand, what could the company possible think he was doing?

Nothing but having a cup of coffee with his predecessor is what. He had planned so many things over the last few days. Who to target when and where, the daybreakers weren't ones for violence and were definitely not going to take part in any unnecessarily, that was why Kyle had his own people to use.

He had made friends over the years, always had the upper hand and that was because he knew the right people. Or in the Company's view he had upper class contacts in the competition.

All Kyle had to do was call in a favour and he would get numerous hits done for free. All he had to do was arrange a time and a date and the assignment would be accomplished as efficiently as his own assassins.

Ivy smiled up at him as he outlined the basics, he wouldn't tell her who would be hit first but filled her in with the basics, just in case something happened to him in the meantime. But if it did he had given her the instructions on how to find the rest of the details that needed to be carried out in meticulous detail.

It was turning in a slow addiction for him now, all he thought about was taking down the Company. Something not so long ago he would have fought tooth and nail for. But things had changed, maybe only little things but in the process he'd had to take a good look at himself, he hadn't liked what he'd seen.

So now he was veering for another direction, trying to eradicate the thing that had made him so monstrous over the years without him even realising it.

"Well I'm happy you've got everything organised, I'm busy enough just taking over your job. How in hell did you get any free time to yourself?"

Kyle looked at her blankly for a second, the question washing over him, finally absolution came to him and he softly smiled, "I never had any, why do you think I've ended up like this? In the end my work became my life and no one needs that, not even me."

And they were swathed in silence again as they sipped their coffees, whatever happened from now on would only comfort him in the knowledge that he was doing the right thing.

Because now there was no longer any turning back, all he could do was now was go blindly forward.

* * *

Jessica sat up at the bar and took her second shot of vodka; she had decided to try to leave her memories behind. It had all started as she stood at the door of her apartment, all the happy scenes of her and Ryan playing in her mind's eye. It was at that moment she smashed every picture of him in the house and headed out to the nearest bar.

She knew how pathetic she was acting, knew that getting drunk wouldn't make her forget, wouldn't even make her feel better. But it was a place to be and she honestly didn't know anywhere else that wasn't connected with the Company. Everywhere she went, they'd been before and the anger and bitterness would boil up, strangling her as she tried to control the emotions that were trying to get out.

So she had ended up in a slum, somewhere only people with one things on their minds would go, the pure and blind pursuit of getting drunk, the alcoholics paradise. She pushed the empty shot glass aside and concentrated on her vodka and coke, picking out the ice cubes one by one and dropping them into the empty ashtray beside her.

She had enough money on her to stay the rest of the night and all she had to do then was stay in a hotel and spend the rest of the time taking leisure in emptying the mini-bar. Jessica had decided that spontaneity was going to the key thing in the pursuits of this evening.

That way the people who thought they knew her wouldn't catch up with her.

She didn't want to think that in the end that she would have to face them all and admit that one of their own had betrayed them, that they were no longer the little collective that could always rely on each other. Because knowing that no matter what else went on they still had these other people that they could their family gave that bare fraction of comfort, even of they weren't related by blood at least by honour and degradation.

Her hand shot up as she called the barman over and ordered another shot.

With ease she shot back the refilled shot glass and let the alcohol seep into her body. With only a few more shots she wouldn't even care, why would she, when she probably wouldn't even be able to remember her own name?

Forget, that was all she wanted to do; At least for now anyway.

* * *

She woke up in a mercilessly bright room with silver covering every wall, lace curtains fluttering over the windows, even when recovering from a hangover she could already recognise where she was.

Somehow she had ended up at Mia's place.

The big question was how though? She remembered staggering out of the first place and then finding another and then after that… well the rest was a nauseating blur.

She tried to search her mind for the answers but she just couldn't catch them. So she just shrugged and sat up wishing that Ryan would come over so they could go out… that was the moment that everything mentally crashed down around her.

Ryan was no longer here though, that was the reason for her exploits last night and because he was no longer there, she had ended up here; Mia would want some answers. Answers that would never be good enough, especially when the Company got their hands on her, she looked at her watch. The second hand's tick growing louder each time it moved round the face of it.

It had been nearly ten hours since he had disappeared from her life, she was trying to imagine what he could be doing, but every time she tried, the image faltered in her mind. Her and Ryan had never been apart longer than a day, him having his own life now away from her forever more seemed a nightmare state.

She wanted her Ryan back, yet at the same time wanted him as far away from her as possible.

A knock sounded at the door and with her creased clothes Jess looked over to Mia standing in the doorway.

Mia had always been beautiful, even as a child. Yet Mia was a Harman, even though she may not be fully accepted by them these days it still shone through. Her long white hair rested just above her waist and her blue eyes seemed to always look directly through you and to the shadows that lurked in the deepest shadows of her self.

Before Jess had always admired her for that but now all that did was made her feel guilty; She hadn't done enough to keep him, she knew that now.

"How did I get here?"

Mia lightly laughed, "I'm not surprised you don't remember. Me and Gunner found you sitting outside your apartment door, very intoxicated and refusing to go in."

"Did I ever say why?"

"Not really, something to do with Ryan. But that was easy to guess at, where is he Jess?"

She just shrugged, "why would I know?"

"Because you always do."

"Not anymore," and with that she got up and turned her back to Mia, looking out into the bright sunlight and onto the busy streets, "I'm sorry I took your bed."

"No worries, me and Gunner camped out in the lounge. It was bit like a sleepover, apart from the fact that Gunner hogged the only blanket I had to spare and took up most of the room on the sofa bed."

It sounded sickening like what her and Ryan had been like when they had been friends, would it had hurt this much if they had stayed like that?

Her stomach suddenly twisted and she had to stop herself from retching, she pushed Mia out of the way as she made a run for the bathroom and to the suddenly appealing toilet. Ignoring the morning call from Gunner she fell to her knees and emptied her stomach into the porcelain bowl; The nauseating smell of her stomach contents coming back to haunt her.

Doing what all good friends do and in all their job descriptions at those type of moments, Mia dutifully held Jess's hair back as sweat beaded down her skin. She leant back, still within retching distance of the toilet bowl just in case her stomach mutinied against her once more, tying Jess's hair back. Mia abandoned her for a while to get her a glass of water.

In the appreciative silence after the attack she looked at the ex-contents of her stomach and wondered why carrot no matter what, always ended up there in people's sick.

A bemused Gunner lounged in the doorway, "having a nice time there?"

She looked up at him and suddenly had an urge to hurt him, "oh yeah, don't you know this is my new hobby? I plan getting deserted everyday by my boyfriend and then having to get so drunk that death doesn't seem the only way out."

She had achieved her wanted reaction, Gunner's face paled and Mia stood frozen behind him, the glass gripped in her hand, Jess suddenly realised that just maybe she had said too much.

"Oh Hon, I didn't…"

"Oh course you didn't!"

Gunner flinched back at her words.

"Why would you have? He's gone and he's not coming back, not for me, not for anyone."

And she all she wanted to do was cry and let herself fall back to sleep again where she wouldn't have to think about who she was and who she was without. But her tears wouldn't fall, leaving her eyes dry and achingly hot.

And more should have been said but the silence seemed to multiply and fill the room. The chance for comfort and sorrow had been left behind in those few crucial moments. Leaving Jessica to pull herself back up and walk unsteadily back into the bedroom.

Within the hour the Company was called and Jessica was accompanied to the compound.

Questions were asked and without force Jessica plainly told them the truth. Ryan would be gone by now and no matter what she said there was no way for her to know where he had gone to.

Kyle came in that evening especially to see her; his retirement party had been cancelled because of a more important crisis. Ryan had yet again ruined someone else's day.

They had both sat in silence, both knowing that whatever they could say at that moment wouldn't matter.

Events had culminated to a catastrophic change and there was no way that any of them could make it any better.

No matter the way they were looked upon it, the Company had changed.

Even from the small departure of one of the assassins it was in an uproar.

The assassins felt like had been betrayed, especially the remaining group of 1986. At the start to survive the group had woven a unique family unit where they knew they could rely on each other no matter what, Ryan's departure had made them doubt themselves.

In that the Company had lessened off the slack to make the Company seem more appealing to them than usual. It was a complicated affair and Kyle's own personal plans had to be set back for Jessica's own delicate sake.

But now was more of a reason for the conduct that was going to go ahead soon enough.

The world needed to be changed and Kyle's plans would only help it along. No matter what he did Kyle couldn't protect the assassins that he had come to think of as his children, even in a more idyllic situation that was impossible.

The world in all its ferocity was a cruel place, unthinkingly hurting the ones that he loved. The only hope that there was, was maybe one day he could understand why and in that, gain the little of peace that he had been looking for.

Peace and understanding of maybe what he had become.

* * *

"Ryan Hon, you alright?"

He looked over to his mother and numbly nodded, what a sickening question to ask when he just had to leave the one person he had only really loved behind. All right? Well, it was going to take a lot more heartache for him just to get to that meagre level.

He had been stupid, that was easy to say. But the hard truth of it was that he was never going to see his Jessica again. A choice he had made, maybe with a little help, a little urging but in the end it was him who walked out of that room and left her behind.

He looked out the window and out into the blackness of the night closing in around him. He hated being in closed spaced and in an aeroplane, well that was one of his worst phobia's. The last time he had been crammed into one of these things was on the way back from Japan. He couldn't help but take a sigh of regret in, as old memories tried to meld in with the new.

He had been fine on the last trip, they had just left Japan, that had been coming on to four years ago now and Jessica had distracted him all the way home. She had known his phobia of flying, he was feline, to him his fear was natural and Jess had always sympathised with him because of it.

'We all have fears,' she had told him, 'the only thing that matters is that you don't let that fear control you, fear is what keeps us alive, but let loose can strangle the life out of you.'

She had been right, like she had been right about so many things.

Like the fact that he was never going to see her again, she had known the relationship was over and maybe he should have as well. It had all started when he had started to lie to her, it was easy, go out and have a simple excuse when he came back, an excuse he knew she wouldn't believe anyway. But that was the way it was, he knew she wouldn't ask and that was because she trusted him. The sickening truth of it all was that if she would have just asked he would have told her everything.

So was it her fault for not asking, or was it his for not telling?

In the end it didn't matter, it was all over now, but that still didn't help heal his bleeding heart. It would take a long time for him to get over this, a long time to forget, forget about the Company maybe, the training but never about her.

She had been his glowing star, his light in the darkness and now just someone he loved who he had left behind.

And all over a fear, a fear that as the years passed and the fact that Company would no longer be there to amuse her, she would fall out of love with him and realise what she had given up; A fear that she would leave, just that one fear he had let loose to mercilessly strangle the hope out of him.

But it was done now and there was no going back.

Especially not for him, their story was over. All he needed to concentrate on now was his own.

Fin.


End file.
